Day after day of surgery,3 lives and eye after eye lost

District collector Reena B Kangale maintains that only the operations conducted on September 29 resulted in severe infections,due to lapse in operation procedure and lack of proper fumigation in the OT. At Balod this week,however,The Indian Express found that many who had lost vision in one eye had undergone surgery on other dates,indicating that such lapses had been a feature of the entire camp from September 22 to 30.

Dukhu Ram,68,mentioned as normal in the government register,died on Monday night,becoming the third such casualty. A resident of Tarri village,he had cataract surgery on September 23.

The case register of the Up Swasthya Kendra at this village lists all those operated as normal. The Indian Express,however,found many had lost vision in the operated eye. Chamru Yadav,68,and Punarad,80,for instance,had been operated on September 22 and 23. Yadav took off his dark glasses and pointed at the pus trickling down his infected eye. I cant see anything with this, he said.

Patients had begun reporting their condition to block medical officers immediately after the operation. The block authorities informed the district administration only on October 12,the infection having turned severe by then.

Health officers at the villages say the government shifted patients in a hurry to hospitals in Durg,Bhiali and Raipur. Kangale says they have been shifted to district hospitals so that the infection does not spread to the other eye. So far 40-odd have been transferred but there will be at least 50 more such cases in villages,says a health employee.

This correspondent met around a dozen villagers complaining of severe pain in the eye and the stomach,and vomiting. All have been termed normal though they too are threatened with blindness in one eye.

In ideal conditions,a persons vision is restored 24 hours after a cataract operation. If the infection has spread and remained for so long,chances of vision getting restored are very,very rare, Raipur-based eye specialist Deepshikha Agarwal says. If they still have pain,they should be given immediate treatment.

At Bharritola village,which has seen the death of Urmila Soni,three women and a man have waited at its Up Swasthya Kendra since 7 am,having been told that doctors would visit them. No doctor has turned up till 3.30 pm. We get orders to bring cases,but doctors arrive late and then finish everything off in haste, says an employee.

Its over 20 days and I still cant see properly. I am forced to wear glasses all the time,doctors have told me not to wash my hair or face for two months. Even a buffalo bathes daily, says Dasri Bai of Dhorri Thema. Doctors say eat chicken,eat eggs to get well. Who will pay? she adds. Nearly all of them live below the poverty line.

Balod Block Medical Officer Shashi Claudius,three doctors – P K Joshi,A K Mishra and C S More – and assistant U S Shaikh and OT attendant Thakur Ram have been suspended. No compensation has been declared yet,even for the deceased,as according to Kangale,The operations were conducted under a Central scheme,National Blindness Control Programme,which does not have a provision for compensation… it is a policy matter to be decided by the government.

Compensation is not a solution, says Health Minister Agarwal. We are providing them quality treatment.