1 op in 3 minutes, docs failed to see threat

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Ghuman (Gurdaspur), December 5

For the poor residents of Gagomahal village, 40 km from Amritsar, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

A Jalandhar-based doctor and those of a Mathura-based NGO, SKL Netra Chakitsalya, reportedly performed a cataract operation once every three minutes on the hapless villagers. They then allegedly forgot to administer the mandatory post-operative care on the patients.

This “laxity” meant that out of 49 Gagomahal patients operated on the intervening night of November 4 and 5 at Guru Nanak Hospital here, 11 were partially blinded (from one eye) while officials admit that the toll may go up in the next few days.

Poor infrastructure

Ghuman hospital, which allegedly gave permission to the NGO and Jalandhar-based Dr Vivek Arora (roped in by the NGO with the help of Manjit Joshi of Phagwara), did not have the requisite infrastructure for conducting cataract surgery, a highly sensitive exercise in medical parlance.

Ophthalmologic experts claim that a specialised eye operation theatre was required if such surgeries had to be carried out. Besides, proper hygiene needed to be maintained as otherwise there was ever possibility that the patient may be infected. This is precisely what happened to the 11 Gagomahal residents as the hospital neither had an eye operation theatre nor were proper hygienic conditions maintained. These patients are now recuperating in an Amritsar Hospital.

Sources in the hospital claimed that the operations, much against medical norms, were conducted between 9 pm and 12 pm, and that too on a normal operation theatre table.

No permission taken

Gurdaspur Civil Surgeon Dr Rajneesh Sood said the operations were performed in a general theatre where conditions to conduct such surgeries were not at all conducive. He said his department had not given any permission to the NGO to conduct operations.

Officials at Ghuman hospital claimed they had applied for permission, “but the health department sat on the file”.

One village, 49 patients

Records seized by the district administration found out that 49 cataract surgeries were conducted. The patients, all above 60 years, belonged to Gagomahal. They included the poor, housewives and daily wage earners.

Three more camps were held on October 31, when 38 patients from Ghuman were operated; November 2, 21 residents of Tanda were given treatment, and November 3, surgeries were conducted on 48 patents from Dera Baba Nanak.

A total of 157 cataract patients were operated upon between October 31 and November 4. A hospital source disclosed that patients would be operated during the night time and would be asked to go home in the morning with the doctors allegedly not providing them even the mandatory post-operative care, which subsequently led to partial blinding.

The maximum patients were from Ghuman and neighbouring areas of Dera Baba Nanak and Tanda.

Admn cracks early

When Deputy Commissioner Dr Abhinav Trikha reached the hospital early in the morning, accompanied by nearly all senior officers of the district administration, the hospital authorities were initially taken aback. However, later they started co-operating with the officials and gave them all the relevant records.

Interestingly, Phagwara resident Manjit Joshi, who interacted between the NGO and the hospital, gave an affidavit in which he stated that he was in touch with the Mathura NGO for the last three years. He said he had been associated with such eye camps that were regularly held in various parts of Uttar Pradesh. “But it is for the first time that such camps had been organised in Punjab. I also state that no doctor of Guru Nanak Hospital was engaged to perform the operations and all the cost of medicines was borne by the NGO,” read Manjit’s statement.

Senior doctors claim that the situation could have been averted had the NGO taken prior permission from the Civil Surgeon. “Once a private institute or private doctors apply for permission to hold medical camps, we send advance teams to check the venue, infrastructure and medicines, which are to be made available to the patients. But in this case, the NGO did not apply for permission from my department,” said Dr Rajneesh Sood.

Experts claimed eye camps were entirely different from other medical camps, including those for blood donation, as they were highly sensitive in nature. “A number of precautions have to be taken in such camps to avoid any untoward incident,” claimed an ophthalmologist.

The Gurdaspur Health Department has formed various teams, which have fanned out amongst patients who have undergone the surgeries.

Batala SSP Manminder Singh said the police, keeping in view the sensitivity of the case, was looking into every possible angle. “We are also looking into the sequence of events leading to 11 people becoming partially blind. Any doctors found to be negligent will not be spared,” he said.