Cuttack, May 16: Kalahandi district and sessions judge Ashok Acharya confirmed that 16 persons, who had undergone operation at a cataract surgical operation at Dharamgarh government hospital, lost their eye sight due to post operation complicacies and lack of immediate post operation care.
Orissa High Court asked the judge, who is also chairman of the District Legal Services Authority, to ascertain the veracity of allegations that the patients had lost their eyesight owing to the doctors’ negligence and indifference of authorities at a mass operation organised at the hospital between September 9 and 23 last year.
Advocate and human rights activist Prabir Kumar Das had made the allegation in a letter petition. Compensation was sought for the persons who had lost eyesight. Taking note of it on April 6, the high court converted it into a PIL.
The report, which was opened in the high court today, said that during investigation all the 16 persons had “stated in single tone that after the operation of their eyes they took medicines for more than a month at home” and “they did not get any relief so far as their eyesight is concerned”.
The Kalahandi district administration had permitted an NGO — JMJ Grace Vision Netralaya (Sambalpur) — to hold the eye camp. During the inquiry, Dr Jitendra Kumar Panda, assistant surgeon (ophthalmology) of the Dharamgarh sub-divisional hospital, had asserted that “for the post operation care, none from Grace Vision came to Dharamgarh except the local coordinators and the social workers who were not qualified enough for such care”.
“In the light of facts, figures and circumstances, it can be said for certain that the 16 persons, as listed in the writ petition, suffered from post operation complicacies resulting in the partial / complete loss of their eyesight is true. The district administration and medical authorities took steps for post operation care is true and the version of Dr Jitendra Kumar Panda who supervised the operation that no doctor from Grace Vision came for the purpose of post operation care cannot be disbelieved,” Acharya observed in his report.
“During the inquiry, nine other persons claiming themselves as other affected persons filed separate affidavits alongwith documents,” the report said.
“Taking note of the report, the division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra today directed secretary of the District Legal Services Authority, Kalahandi, to submit all records relating to the operation of the victims before or on May 18, when the case will be taken up for further hearing,” Das told The Teleraph today.
Meanwhile, the Orissa government, in an affidavit, claimed that the onus for compensation for those who had lost their eyesight lied with the NGO.
