I agree with everyone here, it's an outrage that the patient doesn't pay for the damage he caused. However, I must ask a question: why not just wear contact lenses instead? Surely in this (potentially risky/violent) line of work it would make more sense to remove fragile objects (eg. glasses) that a violent/abusive patient could damage and replace them with something they couldn't grab hold of or break (eg. contacts)? Admittedly I have 20:20 vision so I'm in no position to judge why one would choose glasses as opposed to contacts, but in this case it is a fair question, no?