Case booked against docs of Sarojini Devi Hospital

Hyderabad: A case has been registered against doctors of a government-run eye hospital following allegations that seven patients suffered loss of vision after undergoing cataract surgery, police said on Thursday.

Following a complaint, the case was registered against some doctors of the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital under IPC section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), Humayun Nagar Police Station Inspector S Ravinder said. He, however, said names of doctors were not specifically mentioned in the case.

The matter will also be referred to the Telangana Medical Board," the Inspector told PTI. Thirteen elderly patients, including women, contracted infection in their eyes with seven of them suffering partial loss of vision after undergoing cataract surgery at the hospital last week.

Jitender Reddy, son-in-law of one of the affected persons, Anji Reddy (70), alleged negligence on part of the doctors in the complaint, the Inspector said.

Rajender Gupta, Deputy Superintendent at the hospital, had earlier said, “Nearly 21 patients underwent cataract surgery in the hospital on June 30 and 13 had developed infections in their eyes, though immediately they were taken for re-surgery and six patients responded well to the treatment. But, seven cases are still under treatment.”

When we further investigated we found the 13 cases were operated upon in one operation theatre. It was found that fluid bottles used during surgery were contaminated with Klebsiella bacteria, which caused infection in the eyes of patients and resulted in partial vision loss to some of them," he said.

Describing the incident as ‘unfortunate,’ the Telangana government on Wednesday said that best treatment would be provided to the victims and action would be taken against those responsible for it.