8 patients suffer from side-effects after cataract surgery in Indore; hospital's OT sealed

Indore: Eight persons allegedly suffered from side-effects after cataract surgery at a hospital in Indore last month, prompting the local administration to seal the medical facility's operation theatre and launch a probe into the matter, officials said on Sunday. It is difficult to say whether these patients have lost their eyesight or not and things will be clear after the investigation, they said.

A managing trustee of the hospital, however said there was no negligence and claimed the eight patients had a "reaction" in their eyes due to unknown reasons and all of them were discharged after treatment.

The local administration has constituted a three-member committee which has started the probe into the reasons for the side-effects suffered by the patients, District Blindness Control Society manager Dr Pradeep Goyal told PTI.

The cataract surgeries were carried out on 79 patients at government expenses on March 20 at the Choithram Netralaya here in Madhya Pradesh under the National Programme for Control of Blindness, he said.

After the surgeries, the health department got information through the hospital management about side-effects on the eyes of eight of these patients, he said.

"It is very difficult to tell right now whether the eight patients who underwent the cataract surgery have lost their eyesight or not. The situation will become clear only after the investigation is completed," the official said.

The hospital's operation theatre where the cataract surgeries was performed on these patients has been sealed, he said.

Ashwini Verma, a managing trustee of the Choithram Nethralaya, claimed there was no negligence at the hospital level in the cataract operation camp.

Eight patients, residents of different districts of Indore division, who attended the camp had a "reaction" in their eyes due to unknown reasons and all of them have been discharged from the hospital after treatment, he said.