One patient says Gabriele saved his sight; another angry over infection

By JEFF PARROTT, Tribune Staff Writer

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By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jun 15, 2009 at 5:27 PM EST

Story Updated: Jun 15, 2009 at 6:45 PM EST

William O’Brien and George Proctor, who underwent cataract surgeries performed by Philip Gabriele, reacted with sadness to news Monday that the eye doctor was found shot to death in his Elkhart office.

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RAW VIDEO: Friend talks about Gabrieles' death

But that was about the extent of the common ground the two elderly men shared.

O’Brien, 90, of South Bend, was bitterly dissatisfied with the treatment he received from Gabriele, while Proctor, 73, of Mishawaka, credited him with restoring his eyesight after a Georgia doctor botched an earlier surgery.

O’Brien said he first met Gabriele at Memorial Hospital, as Gabriele was giving free on-site exams. He told O’Brien, who had a family history of glaucoma, that he should seek a cataracts diagnosis, so O’Brien tried calling his ophthalmologist, he recalled.

Because his ophthalmologist was too busy to see him right away, O’Brien decided to go to Gabriele, who told him he needed the surgery and performed it in 2006.

When a film developed over his eye, clouding his eyesight, Gabriele performed a procedure to remove it. But O’Brien said his vision did not improve, so Gabriele prescribed him some medicine.

O’Brien said a pharmacist told him the medicine was to treat an infection. Gabriele then agreed to refer him to a specialist in Ann Arbor, Mich., who successfully treated the infection.

The Ann Arbor doctor told O’Brien that Gabriele had performed the surgery correctly, O’Brien said. But he was angry that Gabriele had never told him that the eye was infected.

“He knew my eye was infected but he wasn’t telling me,” he said. “The only reason I found out was from the pharmacist.”

Today, O’Brien said he cannot find an eyeglass prescription that works.

He said the couple’s shooting deaths, at least one of which was a suicide, didn’t bode well for claims of innocence they made Friday after their indictment.

“It probably proves they were guilty and were trying to avoid more personal embarrassment,” O’Brien said.

But Proctor had a far different experience with Gabriele. He said he started seeing Gabriele in 2004, picking him out of the phone book and feeling comforted by the fact that he shared a name with the archangel Gabriel.

He hoped Gabriele could correct problems resulting from cataract surgery he received in Georgia in 1995. Proctor said that surgery had worked fine up until 2002, when he lost sight in his left eye.

“He said, ‘I think I can do something for you,’ and he did,” Proctor said. “He restored my sight.”

Proctor said Gabriele implanted a new lens and cornea and reconstructed his eyelid and iris. He now has 20/30 vision in that eye, he said.

“We’ve lost a great doctor here,” Proctor said. “Now I’m going to have to find a new doctor, and the people of Michiana are poorer for the loss of him.”

He said Monday’s news “surprised the daylights out of me.”

“To me he was bright, cheerful and outgoing, and he would be absolutely the last person I would think would take his life,” Proctor said. “I figured he would fight these charges.”

Staff writer Jeff Parrott:
jparrott@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6320

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