By Purvette A. Bryant of The Sentinel Staff

Published in The Orlando Sentinel

DELAND -- A Volusia County jury on Monday awarded a Walt Disney World show director $4.5 million in damages after finding that a medical technician -- not a doctor -- misdiagnosed a detached and torn retina in his left eye.

In 1994, the technician at Neumann Eye Institute in DeLand told Charles "Chase" Senge, 47, not to worry about the pain or the "thread-like" feeling in his only eye, said his attorney, Anthony Caggiano. Days later, while on a business trip to Argentina, Senge's vision began to get dark, Caggiano said.

Doctors at a British hospital told Senge he probably had a detached and partially torn retina and told him to return to the United States immediately. Senge did so and underwent four surgeries to save his remaining sight, Caggiano said.

The DeLand jury award against Neumann Eye Institute is among the handful of multimillion-dollar civil court verdicts in Volusia County's history, said Chobee Ebbets a member of The Florida Bar's board of governors representing the 7th Judicial Circuit.

The largest is thought to be in 1994, when a Volusia jury awarded $10.3 million to a South Daytona mother whose daughter was born brain damaged after a botched delivery at what then was West Volusia Memorial Hospital in DeLand.

In 1997, Senge, who orchestrates parades and live entertainment shows at for Walt Disney Co., filed a lawsuit against the Neumann institute and Dr. Albert C. Neumann, who has since died.

Days before a business trip to Argentina, Senge said he began to experience pain -- as if something were in his eye -- after a follow-up procedure to cataract surgeries, Caggiano said. Senge tried to talk with a Neumann doctor by telephone for two days. On the third day he was referred to a technician, who Senge thought was an ophthalmologist. The technician said it wasn't necessary to do anything immediately but that Senge should set up an appointment when he returned.

The six-member jury, which deliberated Senge's case Friday for more than five hours, sent a strong message to the medical community, Senge said.

"These people stood up for people's right to see their doctor," Senge said. "There has to be a better system than to allow an uncredentialed worker to evaluate the condition and give advice to a patient with a life-altering condition."

Now, Senge said he suffers with double vision, can't see out the sides and has limited vision. As an infant, Senge had lost his right eye to a childhood retinal disease. He said Walt Disney World has helped him continue functioning in the workplace.

Dick Womble, an Orlando attorney who represented the eye institute, said Senge's eye problems resulted from his childhood retinal disease, not from faulty treatment by Neumann.

Womble said Monday that his client would ask the judge for a new trial. If that is denied, then the eye institute will appeal the case. Neumann should be granted a new trial because the jury should have never had to decide whether Dr. Neumann was negligent, Womble said, and there was no expert testimony that Neumann was negligent.

Additionally, Senge's attorney made certain opinionated statements that were not penmssible, Womble said.