Nellore:
The Andhra Pradesh government has ordered a probe into what it calls "a serious case of medical negligence" that resulted in 11 people losing their eyesight at a cataract eye camp in Nellore district.
Promising action against those responsible, the state's Health Minister D Nagender said, "It is a serious case of medical negligence. But before taking any action I have asked my department officials to conduct an inquiry and then we will initiate serious action."
However, denying that the incident was a case of medical negligence, a doctor from the Bolleneni Eye Foundation, Dr Sai Murali, said: "We have conducted 60,000 such operations over the last seven years... cannot be concluded to be negligence of doctors... we took patients for treatment as soon as we noticed a problem."
In a shocking incident, 11 people lost their vision in one of their eyes after a free cataract surgery conducted by the Bolleneni Eye Foundation hospital in Nellore went horribly wrong. The operated eye had to be removed after these patients developed infection a few days after the surgery.
They are now being treated in a private hospital in Chennai. The condition of a few other patients who left the hospital without informing is raising concerns.
The surgery was conducted a week ago. Doctors say the infection may have been due to contamination of drugs or the instruments used.
Sources say the problem may have arisen with the saline supplies as everyone who took treatment at the camp reported complications.
For the family of the patients, it's a nightmare. One such victim if Dhivya whose father paid Rs 12,000 and was operated along with those who got the service free of cost. But now he is paying a heavy price.
"Doctors say my father may lose the vision in the other eye too if the infected eye is not removed," Dhivya said.
Another victim, who had vision in one eye before the surgery, has now completely lost her vision.
"Only when we work we can feed our stomach. I don't know what we can do," she said.
The hospital said it had no idea what went wrong. They were now "waiting for a report".
Tamil Nadu had banned such free eye surgery camps after a similar tragedy last year. Doctors here are now concerned about the condition of a few patients who have left the hospital without informing them.