And alleged I'd botched surgery
since a sailor from the open
water to a dark tinted room,
we are saving the planet
and filling our bellies.
It's access to a naval base.
Few reporters are given from
helicopters to hovercraft.
Come along as we see what San
Diegans do to keep our country safe.
And we didn't know what this sign meant,
but we do now.
CBS 8 News Live at 6 starts now.
A San Diego man who has spent most
of his life on the water says he'll
be spending the rest of his life
partially blind from eye surgery.
And he believes dirty tools
are to blame. Good evening.
Thanks so much for joining us.
I'm Marcella Lee.
I'm Carlo chichetto. Last year,
Tom Hirsch went in for cataract surgery.
He says there were complications
and he was eventually told his
site would never be the same.
CBS 8 Abby Black has the lawsuit
filed against the surgery center.
Tom Hirsch has spent his life on the ocean,
sailing under the Sun with no problems,
whether it be for competition,
his sailing business, or just for fun.
Now an alleged botched eye surgery
has taken him from the open water
to inside a dark tinted room.
We usually don't dim the lights
this much for an interview.
Even this tinted room is too bright for
Tom Hirsch to take off his sunglasses.
It feels like if you were
laying in your bed sleeping and
somebody flipped the lights on.
I'm blinded by the light.
And his owner says that he
became partially blind after he
underwent a bilateral cataract
operation on February 2nd,
2022 as Special Surgery Center of Del Mar.
He says he contracted an
eye condition called TASS,
known as Toxic Anterior segment syndrome,
which can be caused by
unsanitary medical instruments.
I'm told it's a
permanent condition that
there is no cure for it.
Hirsch's Attorney, B fell,
filed a civil lawsuit last week
claiming medical negligence
against Kaiser Permanente,
who at the time contracted
with the surgery center.
That has since cut ties.
The lawsuit also names Herche Kaiser
ophthalmologist and the surgery center
known as outpatient surgery of Del Mar,
operated by Envision.
They claim the center is responsible
for as many as nine other
patients suffering from tasks.
There are protocols that need
to be followed, sterilization
procedures that need to be followed,
and that just simply did not happen.
In this case, what happened to Tom
Hirsch was absolutely preventable.
It really was a failure on
so many different levels,
Hurst says that he went to his doctors about
the prolonged eye pain. The blindness,
but felt the doctors brushed him off
and I said, well what's the course of action?
The next course of action, how do I regain my
eyesight? He says. Ohh.
Likely you'll be a candidate
for a corneal transplants.
The sailor still can understand how
we went in for cataract surgery.
And now being told that he
needs cornea transplants,
I dropped a few F bombs because
I'm trying to, you know?
Digest this a little bit.
The 68 year old says that he grew up on
the water under the San Diego Sun and
wanted to sail out his golden years,
but says that's been wiped away.
But sailing is my life and
always has been since I was,
you know, five or six years old.
It's how I raised my kids,
Hersh says he feels left in the dark.
I want to know what happened. Just
acknowledge that you screwed
up. Kaiser Permanente sent us a statement.
In part, it says that it cannot comment
on personal health information,
but did say that the well-being of
its patients is its highest priority.
Neither the surgery center nor its attorney
has returned our request for comment.
Thank you, Abby.
We're getting a look at the
devastation from last night's
massive earthquake in Turkey.
The death toll keeps rising.
The 7.8 magnitude quake has killed more
than 3800 people in Turkey and Syria.
It was the strongest quake to hit
the region in more than a century.
Multiple aftershocks hit after the
initial quake, including a 7.5.
There have been at least
77 aftershocks so far.
Today, nearly 6000 buildings have
collapsed and many people are missing.
A man who pleaded guilty to hitting
and killing a cyclist in Balboa Park
while driving under the influence
of drugs was sentenced today.
The victim's husband spoke in court
about losing his wife, Laura Shin,
as CBS 8 David Gottfredson report.
Shin was a well known architect who
worked at San Diego State University
in the Facilities Planning Department.
I never got to say goodbye to the world.
I never got to say I love you one last time.
The man closest to Laura Shinn,
her husband of 34 years,
spoke in court while the man
who killed her listened while
handcuffed behind the glass wall.
On July 20th, 2021, I lost my wife,
my soul mate, my best friend.
Shin was killed as she was riding
a bicycle to work in a bike lane
along Pershing Drive in Balboa Park.
The driver who hit her,
39 year old Adam Milavetz, pleaded
guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter.
While intoxicated on crystal meth,
along with a string of other charges
during his victim impact statement,
Steven Shin wanted to make
sure everybody in court,
including the defendant,
remembered his wife.
Laura was an architect and urban planner,
an extrovert who always engaged
everyone with a smile. She was also
a community advocate and a teacher.
The 57 year old director of
facilities Planning at San Diego
State spoke to CBS8 in 2019.
About the future of Snapdragon
Stadium in Mission Valley,
we're really looking for the community to
tell us what impacts will this project have,
her husband said in court.
For the first time in his life,
he's living alone,
not have children who have
suddenly lost their mother.
But even our dog Tyler waited more
fully by the front door for over
2 weeks for Laura to come home,
and he still sleeps on her pillow on the bed.
A year and a half later,
the judge sentenced Milavetz to 13 years
in prison under the terms of his plea deal,
back to the day that she
was struck and killed.
I suspect war was smiling as
she peddled up Persian drive.
She always smiled.
She enjoyed cycling.
She was going to a job she loved.
The husband who spoke in court
also has an ongoing lawsuit against
the city of San Diego and SANDAG
alleging unsafe construction
of those bike lanes on Pershing
Drive at the downtown courthouse.
David Godfredson CBS 8.
Thank you, David. Right now,
SDG and E is under fire over Sky
high gas bills, with the governor,
local officials and angry
customers all taking them to task.
Today, Governor Newsom is now
calling for a federal investigation
into last month's natural gas price
spike at San Diego City Hall Plaza.
Today, a coalition of consumer,
energy and political groups gathered
to ask the City Council to hold
public hearings on rising gas bills.
And at the very same time,
a group of angry customers
was across town protesting.
Outside SD Genies building in Kearny Mesa,
saying they're running out of options.
SDG and E points to the high cost
they had to pay for natural gas,
but those customers say the utility
spike was at least double that of any
other provider on the West Coast.
San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher
says he is running for state Senate.
He launched his campaign today
for the Senate District 39 seat.
Fletcher says he wants to bring higher wages,
a lower cost of living and a better
life for San Diego County. Families.
He previously served in the State
Assembly and as the chair of the
County Board of Supervisors. California
is dropping its attempt to require all
K through 12 students to be vaccinated
for COVID in order to attend school.
Our political reporter Morgan Weiner
tells us what you need to know.
CDPH told us in a statement that
with the end of the COVID state
of emergency on February 28th,
they are no longer exploring a vaccine
requirement for California school kids.
They said if it was going to happen,
it would have to go through
the legislature and right now
there are no bills to do it.
Political analyst Steve Swatt called
this moment from October 2021, but
we are announcing here today
a statewide requirement
for in person instruction
where Governor Gavin Newsom
announced all 6.7 million.
Public and private school children
would need to be vaccinated
in order to attend school.
The most contentious moment
of the entire pandemic.
It really separated parents up
and down the states, the state.
Six months later, in April,
it was announced that the plan was delayed.
As of today, CDPH told me they are not
currently exploring emergency rulemaking
to add COVID-19 vaccinations to the
list of required school vaccinations.
There has been that, that,
that pushback from a lot of parents
going going back several years.
But I think it was,
it's a recognition by the health experts
that this is much more manageable,
that we don't have to have
government in control of everything,
that the healthcare system can
sort of pick up where needed.
Jonathan Sackerson is one of
the parents that pushed back.
He is the founder of reopen
California schools. Definitely
something that I was pleased to hear
and something that I thought was going
to happen just based off the sentiment
at this point. He just wants
to know why there was a press
conference to announce the plan,
a press release from.
CDPH when the timeline was
being pushed back. But then
I think Newsom and CDPH need to put out a
statement to make it crystal clear that
the COVID vaccine will not be on the
list of vaccines for next school year.
Is frustrated as the parents and as
a Roseville school board member,
we get daily communications from the
California School Board Association.
They included it from the news
outlets on there, but they haven't
received anything from the state.
It's all been, you know,
media like yourself.
Asking CDPHP about this,
we reached back out to CDPH to
see if they plan on putting out a
public announcement for all to see.
They followed back up saying that
they have nothing further to add at
this time in the original statement.
However, they did make it very clear
they are still strongly recommending
that everyone get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Thanks, Morgan.
And right now, President Joe Biden,
he's getting ready for tomorrow
night's state of the Union address,
the 2nd of his presidency.
You can watch the state of the Union
live right here on CBS8 starting at 6.
CBS 8 News Live at 6 will be
broadcast on our sister station,
The CW San Diego,
at the same time, still ahead,
trying to avert a disaster after
a catastrophic train derailment
and an emergency homeless shelter
downtown can now house even more
young people living on the streets.
Plus, we're recognizing.
Local black-owned business as
we head to North Park. So that
forecast for tomorrow we'll have
some gusty winds of Santa Ana.
Winds are gonna be picking up,
also talking about some large
waves right along the coast
and a warm up this week,
the heats on for Thursday.
Your complete forecast is ahead.