This Article is From Dec 01, 2019

Bengal Man Loses Sight After Eye Surgery, Family Cries Negligence

According to the doctors who performed the surgey, infection in the right eye was so severe that they had to remove the eye to protect the other one.

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Kolkata News

The hospital's director said that the infection couldn't be arrested despite surgery (Representational)

Kolkata:

A 23-year-old man in South 24 Paraganas of West Bengal has lost sight in his right eye after an iron nail pierced through one of his corneas. The man's family is however blaming it on medical negligence.

Raja Naskar, a resident of Baruipur, was rushed to the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO) in Kolkata on Monday evening after he sustained the injury while working at a printing press in the central part of the city.

According to the doctors at the RIO, the infection in the right eye was so severe that doctors had to remove the eye to protect the other one.

Asim Kumar Ghosh, the director of RIO in Kolkata, said doctors had "stitched the wound and toileted the blood" to arrest the infection before attempting to remove the foreign body from the eye.

"The youth's cornea was ruptured and we could not access the degree of damage caused to his retina. Such surgeries cannot take place at night because the procedure requires bigger machines and set up. Our doctors at the emergency took all forms of precautionary measures to contain the infection and prescribed an USG to locate the broken piece of nail inside his eye," the opthalmologist said on Saturday.

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The family members, however, claimed that the ultrasonography (UGC) section at the facility was closed for the day and the doctors had asked them to come the next day.

"We took him to RIO the next day (Tuesday) and the USG was carried out. We kept requesting the doctors to expedite the surgery because my son was writhing in pain. But the surgery was conducted only on Wednesday. Even on Wednesday, the doctors were passing the responsibility among the teams, thus delaying the process," Mr Naskar's father said.

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He claimed that his son did not get any relief after the surgery, following which the doctors decided to remove the right eye.

"There was absolute negligence on part of the doctors at the RIO. They delayed the surgery and my son lost sight in his right eye," the father said, adding that he had lodged a complaint with the authorities at the institute.

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Asim Kumar Ghosh, however, rubbished the allegations of negligence and said the man had sustained severe infection in the right eye from the accident and it was necessary to remove the eye.

"The infection could not be arrested, despite surgery. There were high chances of the infection spreading to the left eye and the brain. That's why our doctors decided to remove the eye to save him from further danger. We had consulted the family members and performed the surgery only after getting their consent," he added.

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