12 lose vision after surgery

About 12 people, including old women, lost their sight after a cataract surgery at an eye camp organised by a voluntary organisation in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura town, about 400 km from here.

According to reports, the surgeries had been performed on the patients at the free eye-camp last month. The patients, however, complained that they lost vision after the bandages were taken off.

Reports said the victims — from Agra, Mathura and also from the neighbouring state of Rajasthan — tried to contact the organisers but they have vanished.

“The board of the voluntary organisation, which had organised the eye camp, has also disappeared,” alleged Multan Singh, whose father lost vision after being operated upon at the camp.

Some patients, who got themselves examined at the medical college at Agra, were told that the vision of their eyes could not be restored. Reports also said that the patients had been given medicines which were past their expiry date.

According to the reports, earlier, too, the same voluntary organisation had been probed after a similar complaint. The probe, however, was abandoned midway and the enquiry officer was suspended on charges of laxity.

District health officials said the organisation had not taken permission from them to hold such a camp. “It is a very serious matter,” said an official. They said an investigation would be conducted into the matter and stern action would be taken against the organisers.

Similar incidents have been reported from different parts of the state in the past. The poor and old people form the majority of the patients who get treated at such free camps.

In Punjab, several patients had lost their vision after a cataract surgery at an eye camp recently.