StarKlinics owner Dr Kate Stark launches legal action against optometrist Annelisa Armitstead
The owner of a collapsed Gold Coast dental company has launched legal action against an optometrist she claims misdiagnosed an aneurysm, leaving her blind in one eye.
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The owner of a collapsed Gold Coast dental company has launched legal action against an optometrist she claims misdiagnosed an aneurysm that left her permanently blind in one eye.
StarKlinics founder Dr Kate June Stark alleges optometrist Annelisa Nadezda Armitstead’s negligence meant she could not take steps to avoid her blindness, depriving her of the ability to work as a dentist and implantologist or run her business unimpeded by medical concerns.
Dr Stark first saw Ms Armitstead in July, 2020, after she started experiencing vision issues in her left eye, documents filed in Southport District Court state.
Dr Stark told the Hope Island-based optometrist she was concerned about “going blind” or the deterioration affecting her work, it is alleged.
The statement of claim says Ms Armitstead allegedly diagnosed Dr Stark with cataracts at a follow-up appointment the next week, telling her it could be treated with a lens replacement “at some undetermined time years in the future”.
Dr Stark claims she continued working after the misdiagnosis at her growing Hope Island clinic – which by the end of 2020 had about 2700 active patients – and signed a lease to open a third practice at Mermaid Beach.
The dentist says she also scored the sole distribution rights in Australia and New Zealand to the Bicon implant system, described in court documents as a “world-renowned” and cost-effective dental system superior to or competitive with others used by the country’s dentists.
It is alleged Ms Armitstead maintained her original diagnosis when Dr Stark returned in February, 2021, as her vision continued to worsen.
The statement of claim alleges Dr Stark saw an ophthalmologist and neurosurgeon in the following weeks and was ultimately diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm, referred to more specifically in documents as an internal carotid artery aneurysm affecting the optic nerve.
It is alleged that despite urgently undergoing a successful non-invasive stent procedure, Dr Stark experienced ongoing symptoms – including blindness, incapacitating headaches, and dizziness and pain – and was soon unable to use her left eye at all.
Dr Stark claims she began facing “substantial difficulties” managing StarKlinics and was unable to practise herself, forcing her to sell personal assets at undervalue.
She was told she was permanently blind in her left eye in April, 2021, according to her statement of claim.
Her counsel alleges that Ms Armitstead did not undertake adequate testing or examination, and that doing so properly would have revealed the cause of Dr Stark’s symptoms was neurological, related to an optic nerve or otherwise unknown, requiring further assessment or specialist treatment.
It is further alleged Dr Stark would not have been left with a “false impression” that the issue was not serious and undergone testing in one to six months, enabling her to receive the correct diagnosis and take necessary medical intervention.
“(Dr Stark) contends that her eyesight would have been saved by a timely diagnosis and treatment,” documents allege.
The statement of claim alleges in the following months, Dr Stark terminated her 25-year lease on the Mermaid Beach site and suffered complications with the aneurysm.
Documents state her AHPRA registration was changed to ‘non-practising’ – preventing her from practising as a dentist or implantologist – only weeks after the Currumbin site temporarily closed in October, 2021.
Subsequent efforts to revive StarKlinics were unsuccessful, with both the Hope Island and Currumbin practices shut down when the company went into administration early last year.
Having split from her husband Matthew Stark, Dr Stark returned to the United Kingdom to live with her parents and was later diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
Court documents allege Dr Stark had been planning to expand the franchise to other parts of the state and country by late 2019 to early 2020, and that she invested heavily in the business and its assets.
She is suing Ms Armitstead for general damages for non-economic loss, past and future treatment expenses and loss of earning capacity, plus legal costs and interest.
Ms Armitstead’s legal representative did not respond when contacted for comment. She has not yet filed a defence.
According to her online registration listing on AHPRA’s website, Ms Armitstead has a bachelor degree in optometry and graduate certificate in ocular therapeutics.
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