Six lose eyesight after surgery camp visit

The Statesman, March 19, 2007
Press Trust of India

BHAWANIPATNA, March 18: At least six persons, including four women, lost vision in one eye allegedly due to the negligence at a cataract operation camp held at the District Headquarters Hospital here.

The victims, all above 60 years of age, lodged a complaint with the Town police station against the doctors here yesterday. They held the doctors responsible for their plights.

According to the FIR, some residents of Madel, a village under Narla block in Kalahandi district, had underwent cataract operation at the District Headquarters Hospital on 21 and 22 January. They were released after two days of the surgery.
The patients, identified as Kamala Majhi (70), Kaikei Rana (60), Ratani Majhi (60), Sudra Majhi (70), Gimila Rana (65) and Hanu Rana (65) of the village, 20 KM from here, had come to the hospital complaining of eye watering and pain.
They were, however, asked to leave the hospital after doctors administered some eye drops on them.

The poor villagers, however, came to know about the fate of their eyes after their eye bands were removed yesterday. They failed to see anything and alleged that each had lost one of their eye balls.

When contacted, the head of the eye department at the hospital, Dr Bharat Bhusan Panda, said that the six people had lost one of their eyes due to serious infection. He said that villagers did not take post-operation care which led to damage of their eye balls.

He, however, dismissed the allegations that their eye balls were removed during operation as alleged by some of the kin of the patients.
The doctor claimed that there was no problem in their eyes immediately after the operation. All the problems started after they spent some days at home. Therefore, the doctors are not at fault, Dr Panda reasoned.