More than a fortnight after 18 patients lost vision in one eye following cataract surgery at the government-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur, several of them say they won’t leave the hospital until their condition improves.
Between June 26 and 28, more than 70 cataract surgeries were performed at the SMS hospital. Following the surgeries, at least 18 patients complained of pain and redness in one of their eyes, with some of them also experiencing eye discharge and swelling. They had also lost vision in the eye.
The cause of this was determined to be infection by the pseudomonas bacteria, the source of which is yet to be established. Hospital authorities say that two of the 18 have already regained their vision and that they were hopeful that the rest would follow suit within a few weeks.
Patients say that doctors had told them to go home, but many remain anxious as they continue to suffer pain and other symptoms, including the loss of vision.
Sitting at a ward in SMS’s Charak Bhawan, which houses the ophthalmology department, 70-year-old Chanda Devi says she had her operation on June 26. “But I couldn’t sleep at night after the operation due to intense pain,” she said, wearing dark post-surgery glasses. Her son, Rakesh Soni, said that though they had left the hospital following the surgery, they came back two days later. As Chanda removed her glasses briefly to reveal a pale, grey eye, Rakesh said another operation was performed on her, but the pain continues.
“Doctors tell us to go home and that it (the infection) will go away, but how can we leave before it is resolved?” asks Rakesh.
Nearby, 54-year-old Chand Devi, a resident of Pratap Nagar in Jaipur, says she had also initially returned home after the operation. “But my eyes started watering and I slowly stopped seeing from the eye. Next day, I returned to the hospital,” she said.
Poonam, her daughter-in-law, says doctors told them to get another operation done two months later. “They are telling us to go home, saying ‘you are fine now’. But we don’t want to go home yet. Give us a guarantee that the infection will go away. We will go home only once it goes away,” she says.
Patients also complained that the hospital authorities had not given them a detailed explanation about the infection.
Gulab Devi (62), a resident of a Jaipur village about 25 kilometres from the hospital, says her infection was discovered a day after the surgery, which she had on June 26, when the eyepatch was removed. “I can’t see anymore, and the eye continues to ache,” she says.
Another patient, 60-year-old Munni Devi, said that her eyes haven’t stopped watering ever since she used the prescribed eye drops after the operation.
Munni Devi, like most of the others still at the ward, is from Jaipur itself, while most of the 18 who have already left the hospital are from nearby districts. Her son, Sitaram Sharma, a statue-maker, skipped several days of work to stay with her at the hospital. “They have not given a proper explanation yet about how the infection occurred,” says her daughter-in-law Madhuri Sharma.
Shanti Devi Sharma (57), who is accompanied by her husband at the ward, says doctors had assured her that her condition would get better, “but what if the pain increases at home? Also, the rainy season is here…so it is better to stay at the hospital.”
SMS hospital superintendent Achal Sharma said that of the 18, at least two have regained their vision. He said that when complaints started pouring in, the hospital called all the patients who had undergone surgery between June 26 and 28, for examination at the hospital.
“All patients have been stabilised clinically and there is no sign of inflammation. One patient was in the ICU for systemic infection, but he is out of the ICU now and is stable,” Sharma said.
“All the patients who were complaining were admitted in the department, which then informed us of the situation. Immediately, we constituted two medical boards – one for the treatment and management of the 18 patients, and the second, with microbiologists, ophthalmologists, general physicians, epidemiologists, the senior eye operation theatre in-charge, and so on, to find out the source of the infection,” the superintendent said.
So far, more than 100 samples have been sent to the microbiology department from operation theatres, including from its walls, lights, the OT table, trolley, linen, water, air from the AC plant, the equipment and drugs used in the operation, among others. The final report is yet to come.
What has made the case more difficult is that the 18 patients “were operated in different OTs, on different days by different teams”.
Additionally, to manage the situation, the medical team has also taken advice from other higher centres concerned with ophthalmology, including AIIMS, New Delhi, and Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai.
Hospital authorities, Sharma said, are hopeful that most patients will regain their vision within 6-8 weeks, and if some among them don’t, the hospital will opt for keratoplasty – surgery on the cornea – “for a better final outcome”.
Shanti Devi Sharma, one of the 18 patients who lost vision in one eye following cataract surgery. Behind her is seen Gulab Devi. (Express photo) 
Share
