Minto doctors booked for botched cataract surgeries

A police complaint has been filed as 13 people, including three women, failed to regain their eyesight ten days after a cataract operation at the Minto Ophthalmic Hospital.

Based on a complaint by Sujatha M (39), wife of one of the patients, the Vishveshwapuram (V V Puram) police took up a case and booked the doctors at the Minto hospital.

The doctors have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 338 - causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others.

Sujatha stated in her complaint that her husband and 12 others, including three women, were admitted to Minto Hospital as in-patients on July 6 and their cataract surgeries were scheduled for July 9. Her husband needed operation in one eye.

But seven days after the surgery, none of the 13 patients regained eyesight. When Sujatha asked the doctors, they told her that the delay in regaining eyesight was due to an infection and the patients would gradually get back vision.

The doctors also told Sujatha: “We’re not gods. Keep in mind that you’ve signed the consent forms before surgery.”

Sujatha and other caregivers met other doctors in the hospitals, who did not assure them that the patients would get their eyesight back. She then filed the complaint with the VV Puram police. Further investigations are underway.