Eyeballs removed to prevent infection

Doctors at Sankara  Nethralaya (SN) here, on Monday said that the infection in four of the 12 patients, rushed to Chennai from the ‘Bollineni Eye Hospital and Research Centre’, in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, had gone beyond control. “We had no other option but to remove the eyes through a procedure called ‘Evisceration (removal of the contents of the eyeball), to prevent the spread of the bacteria to the brain and other parts of the human body in those four patients,” Dr S S Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, SN, said, as more patients from the AP tragedy faced the grim prospect of vision loss.

Of the 15 patients diagnosed with “post-operative Endophthalmitis (an infection of the eye) in Bollineni Eye Hospital, 12 patients were referred to SN here as their eye infection turned worse, he pointed o ut.

However, before it turned fatal for all four of them, “we had to remove their eyes to save their lives,” the doctors said.