Several victims of suspected botched cataract surgeries done at a private eye hospital in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur are now resisting efforts to refer them to the state-run Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna to address post-surgery complications, officials and victims said.
“Many patients are reluctant for one reason or other. Let’s see how many of them turn up,” a Motihari-based government doctor said, referring to the plan to send at least 21 affected patients from the two districts of West and East Champaran to the Patna-based government hospital for further treatment on Monday. East Champaran’s civil surgeon Dr Anjani Kumar said that 13 of 15 such patients from his district had returned to their respective villages despite the referral to the Patna hospital. The remaining six such patients are from West Champaran, district’s civil surgeon Birendra Kumar Choudhary said.
Close to 328 patients were operated for cataract between November 22 and 27 at the Muzaffarpur Eye Hospital and several of these surgeries were allegedly botched up, resulting in many patients losing an eye due to severe infection. Muzaffarpur’s Brahmpura police station on Thursday lodged an FIR against 14 persons including the secretary, manager and doctors attached with the hospital.
Shankar Ram, a resident of Sherawa village in Narkatiaganj block of West Champaran district is one among those who have been referred to Patna, but says he will not go to IGIMS come what may.
“I will prefer to go to Parvanipur (a Nepal-based eye hospital). They will take out my eye, if I go there (IGIMS),” Ram told HT over the phone.
Ram is not the only one suffering from distrust and fear. His three co-villagers, Dhurva Choudhary, Algu Sah and Laxmina, who all underwent the cataract surgery at the Muzaffapur Eye Hospital this November, too, are reluctant to be referred to IGIMS.
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Laxmina, who was operated on November 23, said the visibility in her eye, that was operated on, has dwindled drastically after the surgery. “My eye was comparatively very good before the operation. Everything is looking blurred now,” she said, and added that she won’t go to IGIMS. “No, we are not going anywhere. We will manage our treatment at our own expenses,” said Laxmina.
Meanwhile, 12 victims of the botched up operations who had to get one of their eyes removed at Shri Krishna Medical College & Hospital (SKMCH) at Muzaffapur were recovering well, Dr Rajeev Kumar Singh, head of the department of eye, said. “They all have responded well and may be discharged in a day or two.”
