Guwahati, March 22: A team of National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) today visited Nagaon to inquire into the botched cataract surgery held at Bhogeswari Phukanani civil hospital in the central Assam town early this month that left 13 persons infected.
The infected 13 are among the 43 persons, aged between 50 and 85 years, who underwent free cataract surgery at the civil hospital between March 7 and March 11 under a centrally sponsored programme.
Seven of the infected have lost their sight while two others are still in the danger zone. The remaining four will live with partial eyesight for the rest of their lives, a worker at the Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya here told The Telegraph here when contacted in the afternoon.
However, there was no official confirmation.
The son of one of the victims said, "His condition is getting worse every day. He is considerably younger than the others and has not lost his sight yet. So we are somewhat hopeful. We will definitely take legal action."
The programme team had a meeting with all the doctors and nurses associated with the project in each district at Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya today following which the team, under the leadership of their state programme officer Anup Kumar Daityari, left for Nagaon. Daityari had rushed to Nagaon yesterday too.
"The success rate of cataract operation is much higher than most surgeries. Such a high number of patients getting infected reflect there has been some sort of negligence among the doctors or nurses while conducting the surgery. We are inquiring into it and will take necessary action against those found responsible," Daityari told The Telegraph. "It is too early to speculate on the cause of infection, especially before receiving the examination reports of the machinery and water samples. But mostly it happens because of unsterilised tools or through contaminated water."
While Nagaon deputy commissioner Shamsher Singh ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident, the district health service department sent samples of water and the tools used in the surgery to Guwahati yesterday.
Murali Baruah, son of one of the victims, 78-year-old Mondhan, has blamed Nagaon civil hospital authorities for the botched surgery.
Ranadeep Chakraborty, a city-based ophthalmologist, said a cataract operation comes with the risk of infection, swelling of nerves and cornea, bleeding in the eye and the like. "Cataract is whitish clouds that form on the lens in one or both eyes because of several reasons such as age, smoking, stress etc. It is not a very complicated surgery, but it requires proper sterilisation and precision. Otherwise, several complications may arise like what happened to the victims here. These infections are called endophthalmitis. In most of the cases, the patient loses sight."
Compensation
Gauhati High Court today ordered the Assam government to pay Rs 3.5 lakh compensation to each of the five persons who lost vision in one eye after undergoing free cataract surgery at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH) here in November 2015.
The order was passed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Singh and Justice Manojit Bhuyan.
After the surgery on November 27, 2015, these patients - Garga Ram Kalita, Dharmesh Ramchiary, Tarini Kanta Medhi, Rup Sundari Mondol and Sabitri Das - complained of discomfort in their operated eye. They were diagnosed with eye infection that led to loss of vision. They moved the high court in December 2015, seeking compensation and action against the erring doctor.
The high court accepted the inquiry report submitted by the two-member expert committee, which gave a clean chit to Bindu Singla, an eye surgeon of the MMCH who had conducted the surgeries. Singla's counsel Amit Goel said the court had accepted the inquiry report which blamed the poor condition of the operation theatre of MMCH.
