Cataract Surgery results in four persons losing sight after at Muzaffarpur hospital

A private medical camp in Bihar providing free cataract treatment resulted in four persons losing sight in one eye.

On November 22, the Eye Hospital in Muzaffarpur held a free clinic for 65 people. Twenty-five of them were infected, and four of them had to have their operated eyes removed to prevent the illness from spreading further.

Muzaffarpur Civil Surgeon Dr Vinay Kumar Sharma told reporters on Tuesday: “It is a serious matter. We have ordered a three-member committee that includes an eye specialist. We have sent some patients to SKM College and Hospital of the town for better treatment”.

Rammurti Singh, one of the patients whose eye had to be taken out post-surgery, said: “I started feeling severe pain in my operated eye. When I consulted back to Eye Hospital, I was advised that my operated eye has to be taken out or else, the infection could spread… But who will compensate for my lost eye? It is sheer negligence on part of the hospital”.

Eye Hospital secretary Dilip Jalan said: “After some patients complained of acute pain in their operated eyes, we started their treatment and referred some patients to Patna. It is true that operated eyes of four persons had to be taken out”.

The Muzaffarpur CS said: “We can fix responsibility for lapse only after the probe report”.