Eye camps come under State Govt

According to a section of ophthalmologists, such tragedies occur due to the target-oriented approach of the programme. However, a former professor believes that gross negligence on the part of the operating doctors led to the tragedy.

Under the National Blindness Control Programme, the Centre has fixed a target for all states. The State government set up the District Blindness Control Society headed by the District Collector to implement the Centre-sponsored programme. In the current year, Maharashtra is supposed to conduct four lakh cataract operations of which more than 2.21 lakh operations have been conducted.

“This target-oriented approach forces the ophthalmologists to conduct the specified number of operations in the given time frame due to which there is a possibility of negligence and dereliction of duty,” a senior ophthalmologist said.

However, a former professor of ophthalmology states that the tragedy was a result of the total lack of professionalism on the part of the doctors involved. “From initial reports, it appears that due care was not taken by the operating ophthalmologists. After the operations, they should have kept the patients under observation for 12 hours. However, instead, they were busy removing the cataracts of another batch of patients,” he said.

According to another former professor, the patients may have lost their vision due to development of pseudomonas organisms in their body. Pseudomonas occur if the instruments used and operation theatre are not sterilised. “Once the pseudomonas develop in the body, it results in the melting of the cornea and adversely affects the retina of the patient,” he added.

The situation could still have been saved if the doctors had acted immediately on noticing the damage to the cornea of the patients. "If the ophthalmologists had done keratoplasty and then administered an intra-vitreoul injection, the patients may not have lost their vision," he said. "Now no amount of compensation nor the report of the committee of experts will help them out of their misery,” he added.