24 people blinded at eye surgery camp in India

[Night_Hawk]

24 people blinded at eye surgery camp in India

(Agencies) / 6 December 2014

A government doctor who treated the latest victims said they had contracted infections after undergoing the surgery on November 4.

New Delhi: At least 24 people have lost their sight after undergoing free cataract surgery at a camp in northern India, local authorities say, as fears grow the final figure will be far higher.

Patients Gurbachan Singh, Sampuran Kaur and Pooro Kaur, who lost their eyesight after undergoing surgery at the eye camp, show their damaged eyes at a government hospital in Amritsar, Punjab. AFP

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Officials said 62 people had the surgery at a village camp run by a medical charity on November 4, and they were trying to ascertain how many people had lost their sight.

For now, there are 24 confirmed cases of patients from the camp who have lost their eyesight, said Abhinav Trikha, deputy commissioner of Gurdaspur district in the northern state of Punjab. Media reports suggested many more could be affected.

The case raises fresh concerns over the quality of medical procedures in India after the deaths of 13 women who underwent sterilisation surgery at a camp in central India. Government officials have blamed contaminated drugs for their deaths, but an independent report published this week said they had suffered septicaemia. Doctors allegedly used the same unsterile equipment on dozens of women.

A government doctor who treated the latest victims said they had contracted infections after undergoing the surgery on November 4. They came to us in a very bad condition... the infection had already spread, Karanjeet Singh told the NDTV news channel, adding that the chances of restoring their eyesight were much lower now.
Authorities said the problem first came to light when victims began coming forward this week.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government on Friday ordered a probe into the free eye check-up camp.
The state government also announced interim relief of Rs100,000 to each of the affected families, whose members have lost eyesight in the tragedy.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday ordered a high level probe into the Ghuman medical camp tragedy in the Gurdaspur district.
Officials in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts said that the number of patients whose eyesight was affected could go up.

Badal has asked the Principal Secretary Health Vinnie Mahajan to personally conduct inquiry into all the aspects of the incident.
He directed Mahajan to rush to the site of tragedy for an on-spot assessment of the tragedy and for supervising and expediting relief to the victims and their families, Badals adviser Harcharan Bains said.
The chief minister has also announced an interim relief of Rs100,000 to each of the affected families, whose members have lost eyesight in the tragedy.

Announcing free medical treatment for all the victims of the tragedy, Badal has directed that all the patients should be re-examined for fresh treatment at the government level, Bains said.
Enquiries are being made about the NGO, which is based in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. Sources said that the team of doctors, who operated upon the eye patients, were mostly from Mathura. One doctor was from Jalandhar.

wThe people who lost their eyesight were all aged above 60 years. They were admitted to the Government Medical College hospital, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat said.
All of them belong to Gago Mahal village in Ajnala sub-division of Amritsar district.

Bhagat said around 60 people were checked at the eye camp. The cataract operation was conducted recently at a charitable hospital in Ghuman village in Gurdaspur district.

The administration came to know about the incident after some affected villagers complained to the Amritsar deputy commissioner on Thursday.
Bhagat said the camp was operating without government permission and authorities had registered a legal case against the Guru Nanak Charitable Hospital, where the surgeries were conducted. He said the doctors at the medical college said it will take up to one week to know if the eyesight of the affected people can be saved.

Source

 

[London-1]

Eh vi Shahbaz Sharif tey Paa deyo. Hye tey Punjab ee na
[hilar]

 

[Night_Hawk]

[h=1]India cataracts scandal: Arrest over 'botched' surgery
[/h]

Doctors have not established the cause of the eye infections



A charity owner who organised cataract surgery in India has been arrested after 19 of his patients were left at risk of partial sight loss.
Officials suggested the patients had contracted infections at the charity's medical camp in Amritsar, Punjab state.
Manjit Joshi, who set up the camp, was detained by police.
India's medical infrastructure is under intense scrutiny after 15 women died following sterilisation surgery in the central Indian state of Chhatisgarh.
Tens of thousands of older people are operated on for cataracts in charity-run camps and government hospitals every year.
The operations are generally considered to be low risk and easy to perform.
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Amritsar says all of the cataract patients who claim to have lost their sight were poor villagers attracted by the offer of free treatment.

Analysis: Philippa Roxby, health reporter, BBC News Cataracts are the main cause of impaired vision worldwide. They are cloudy patches that develop in the lens of the eye and can cause blurred or misty vision, which can become worse over time. Cataracts are very common, especially in older people.
Surgery to remove cataracts is a relative straightforward procedure, which is usually carried out under local anaesthetic. During the operation, the surgeon makes a tiny cut in the eye so the affected lens can be removed. The surgeon then inserts a small plastic lens in its place.
The risk of serious complications as a result of cataract surgery is small. The most common complication is vision becoming cloudy again. This can happen when a skin or membrane grows over the back of the lens implant months or years later.
Other complications are much rarer. There is a very small risk of permanent sight loss in the treated eye from the operation.

Mr Joshi organised the cataract surgery in the Gurdaspur district of Amritsar on 4 November.
Before his arrest, he told the BBC that 49 people had been treated and all had received proper care.
However, our correspondent says 19 of those patients are in danger of losing sight in one eye, and one patient who had already lost sight in one eye was in danger of going blind.
Earlier reports had indicated that a doctor who carried out the surgery had also been arrested.

It is not yet known whether the patients have permanently lost their sight

The patients are now being treated by doctors in an Amritsar hospital
The cause of the problem was not clear, with officials suggesting the patients had contracted infections either as a result of a lack of proper equipment, or because the equipment was not sterilised.
Dr Rajiv Bhalla, Amritsar's chief medical officer, said the charity did not have proper permission to set up the camp.
It is not the first time cataract surgery has hit the headlines in India.
Between 2008 and 2009, 14 patients lost their sight after contracting infections in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
And in August 2008, eight patients lost their eyesight and 21 became partially blind after free eye surgery in Tamil Nadu.

 

[Fatema]

just like they have no concept of personal hygiene and toilets same way most Indian hospitals and surgeries have no concept of after surgery care. . as immediately after surgery a patient can develop infection if not given good care and post surgery treatment.

 

[Night_Hawk]

[h=1]بھارت میں مفت آئی کیمپ پرعلاج کیلئے آنے والے افراد اپنی بینائی سے ہی ہاتھ دھو بیٹھے
[/h]

ویب ڈیسک جمعـء 5 دسمبر 2014 ​

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مفت آئی کیمپ سے علاج کرانے والے افرادکے کچھ ہی دنوں بعد آنکھوں میں تکلیف شروع ہوگئی۔ فوٹو اے ایف پی ​

امرتسر: بھارت میں ڈاکٹروں کا پیشہ وارانہ فرائض میں غفلت برتنے کا ایک اورسفاک واقعہ اس وقت سامنے آیا جب مفت آئی کیمپ میں علاج کی غرض سے آنے والے افراد ہمیشہ کے لیے اپنی ببنائی سے ہی محروم ہوگئے جب کہ حکام نے مفت آئی کیمپ کا انعقاد کرنے والی انتظامیہ اورعلاج کرنے والے ڈاکٹروں کو گرفتارکرلیا۔​

محکمہ صحت کے حکام کے مطابق بھارتی پنجاب کے علاقے امرتسر میں گرونانک چیریٹیبل اسپتال کے احاطے میں ایک فلاحی تنظیم کی جانب سے مفت آئی کیمپ لگایا گیا جس میں لوگوں کی بڑی تعداد اس موقع سے فائدہ اٹھانے کے لیے پہنچ گئی۔ کیمپ میں 62 افراد کی آنکھوں کا آپریشن کیا گیا جس میں 17 افراد نے کچھ دنوں بعد ہی آنکھوں میں شدید درد کی شکایت شروع کردی جس کے بعد انہیں امرتسر کے حکومتی اسپتال میں مزید علاج کے لیے لایا گیا۔ اسپتال میں آنکھوں کے ماہر سرجن کرامجیت سنگھ کا کہنا تھا کہ ان کے پاس 17 مریض آئے اور جب ان کی آنکھوں کا معائنہ کیا گیا تو بدقسمتی سے ان میں سے 10 افراد مکمل طور پر بینائی سے محروم ہوچکے تھے جبکہ 4 افراد کی بھی دیکھنے کی صلاحیت ختم ہونے کے برابر ہے۔​

ڈاکٹر کرامجیت سنگھ کا کہنا تھا مفت آئی کیمپ پر لوگوں کے آپریشن کے دوران جراثیم سے پاک اوزار کا استعمال نہیں کیا گیا جب کہ غلط آئی ڈراپس کا استعمال ان مریضوں کی آنکھ کی بینائی سے محرومی کا باعث بنا۔ حکام نے واقعے کی تحقیقات کا آغاز کرتے ہوئے مفت آئی کیمپ کا انعقاد کرنے والی انتظامیہ اورعلاج کرنے والے ڈاکٹروں کو گرفتارکرلیا۔​

واضح رہے کہ بھارت میں اس طرح کے واقعات رونما ہونا کوئی نئی بات نہیں جب کہ اس طرح کے پے درپے واقعات نے ان کے صحت کے نظام پر بھی کئی سوالیہ نشان چھوڑ دیئے ہیں اور گزشتہ ماہ ہی سرکاری اسپتال میں نس بندی کے آپریشن کے دوران 15 خواتین زندگی کی بازی ہار گئی تھیں جب کہ اس آپریشن کے دوران خاتون کے پیٹ کو پھلانے کے لیے سائیکل میں ہوا بھرنے والے پمپ کے استعمال نے تو رہی سہی کسر ہی پوری کردی تھی۔​