Indore:

Eight people allegedly suffered side effects after cataract surgery at an Indore hospital last month, prompting the local government to seal the medical facility’s operating theater and launch an investigation into the matter, officials said on Sunday.

They said it was difficult to say whether the patients had gone blind, and that would become clear after an investigation.

However, a managing director of the hospital said there was no negligence, adding that the eight patients had eye “reactions” for unknown reasons and had been discharged after treatment.

Dr Pradeep Goyal, manager of the District Blindness Control Society, told PTI that the local administration has constituted a three-member committee to start investigating the reasons for the side effects in patients.

He said that under the National Blindness Control Programme, cataract surgeries were performed on 79 patients at Choithram Netralaya Hospital in Madhya Pradesh on March 20 at government expense.

After the surgery, the health department obtained information about eye side effects in eight of the patients through hospital management, he said.

“It is still difficult to determine whether these eight patients who underwent cataract surgery have lost their sight. The situation will only become clear after the investigation is completed,” the official said.

He said the hospital’s operating room where cataract surgeries were performed on these patients had been cordoned off.

Ashwini Verma, managing trustee of Choithram Nethralaya, alleged that there was no negligence at the hospital level at the cataract surgery camp.

He said the eight patients who attended the camp, residents of different parts of Indore, suffered “reactions” in their eyes due to unknown reasons and were discharged after treatment.

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