Yahoo – AFP,
Bhuvan Bagga, 6 Dec 2014
Doctors may be able to restore the vision of at least six of the 20 people blinded by botched free cataract surgery in northern India, a government official said on Saturday.
An Indian
doctor inspects the eye of a patient who lost her eyesight after undergoing
free cataract surgery, at a government hospital in Amritsar on December 6, 2014
(Photo by Narinder Nanu / AFP)
|
Doctors may be able to restore the vision of at least six of the 20 people blinded by botched free cataract surgery in northern India, a government official said on Saturday.
Authorities
have suggested poor surgical hygiene may be to blame for the loss of sight
after what are normally considered low-risk operations, in the latest scandal
to highlight poor medical care in parts of India.
Authorities
in India's Punjab state reported 20 confirmed cases of blindness after a
medical charity conducted free cataract operations on 157 people in November in
Amritsar.
Indian
patients who lost their sights after
undergoing surgery at an eye camp show
their damaged eyes at a government
hospital in Amritsar on December 5, 2014
(Photo by Narinder Nanu / AFP)
|
Local media
reports, however, say the number of people blinded could range from 30 up to as
much as 60.
The cases
have raised fresh concerns about the hygiene standards in India's severely
stretched health-care services.
The
incident comes just weeks after the deaths of 13 women following sterilisation
surgery at a camp in central India.
Government
officials blamed tainted drugs for the deaths, but an independent report said
the women had suffered septicaemia that could have been caused by lack of
hygiene.
In the case
of those having eye surgery, the organiser of the camp has been arrested on
accusations of allegedly running the camp without government permission, police
said, while the doctor who performed the cataract operations has been been held
for questioning.
"Our
preliminary enquiries have indicated the doctor performed more than 30
operations in a single day," Manvinder Singh, a senior Punjab police
official, told AFP.
"Technical
teams are questioning him (the doctor) on different aspects," Singh said.
Punjab
police were seeking to trace every patient operated on at the camp to ascertain
the total number of victims.
A
government doctor who treated the latest victims on Friday said they had
contracted infections after undergoing the cataract surgery on November 4.
"They came to us in a very bad condition... the infection had already spread," Karanjeet Singh told India's NDTV news channel, adding "chances of restoring their eyesight" are as a result much lower.
An Indian
doctor inspects the eye of a patient who lost his eyesight after undergoing
free cataract surgery, at a government hospital in Amritsar on December 6, 2014
(Photo by Narinder Nanu / AFP)
|
"They came to us in a very bad condition... the infection had already spread," Karanjeet Singh told India's NDTV news channel, adding "chances of restoring their eyesight" are as a result much lower.
Volunteer
groups and government authorities regularly hold medical camps to treat tens of
thousands of poor Indians each year for various ailments.
Authorities
said the problem first came to light when victims began coming forward earlier
in the week.
Police said
there could be more arrests in the cataract case.
"Our
police team is leaving for Mathura in neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh,
where the NGO (non-governmental organisation) has its headquarter," Singh
said.
"In
Mathura, we hope to get the names of all the other people directly responsible
for this illegal camp," he said.
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