Cataract culprit

Sept. 26: When 67-year-old Chitra Bahadur Gurung went to get his eyes checked at the Umrangsu community health centre, it was already too late.

Having lost both his eyes to cataract, he was told it would take super-specialised treatment to restore his eyesight. The doctors advised him to go to Silchar Medical College immediately for an intraocular lens implantation.

The term “operation” was enough to put Gurung off.

He refused to budge even when the healthcare officials assured him that the operation and even the journey would be “free of cost”.

He cursed the doctors, tried alternative medicine but stood firm in his reluctance to climb onto the operation table.

“I think it would be better to visit an expert kaviraj. They (the doctors) refused to prescribe medicines,” said the illiterate sexagenarian.

The healthcare officials tried their best to persuade his family members to take him to Silchar, but failed.

“We spoke to his family several times and but no one is willing to take him to Silchar,” an official at the community health centre said.

Gurung is not the only patient in the district who suffers from ignorance, a malady more dangerous than the actual disease, say Umrangsu health centre employees.

Thousands of villagers of this hill district continue to languish from perfectly-curable cataract, all because the district administration has failed to create awareness about it.

With no infrastructure and little manpower to conduct cataract operations in the district, healthcare officials can do little more than persuade patients to visit a hospital in the neighbouring district.

The joint director of health services, P. Haloi, admits that lack of infrastructure and doctors are the primary reasons behind the healthcare crisis.

“We have only two doctors but none of them are trained. The civil hospital is not equipped to conduct eye operations. So we send our patients to Silchar Medical College,” he said.

An eye operation theatre at the civil hospital is in the pipeline though. The scenario might just improve then, he said.

But how much can the scenario possibly change where doctors fear to tread because of militants? More than 60 per cent posts are lying vacant in the district, said a health service department source.

“We have the district blindness control society and the state government is releasing funds for blindness control regularly. But there is no awareness among the masses and patients hardly come for treatment,” said a source of district administration.

Since 2001, only 119 cataract patients have formally registered their names in Umrangsu community health centre, and the authorities are still in the dark about their present condition.

No wonder, the district has been rated as the poorest performer by the State Blindness Control Society.

For patients like Gurung, it is a dark future ahead.