Lost eyesight due to botched surgery as power went out, says TN woman

Four women in Pudukottai lost their vision after being operated at the Government Headquarters Hospital, according to a TOI field investigation.

Annamal, 57, one of the affected woman said, "There was a power failure when the operation was going on. In the next three days, I lost my vision in the eye and became half-blind," as told to TOI.

According to her discharge summary, she had gone through a cataract surgery on May 5, 2015 on her left eye by Government Hospital in Pudukottai. Two months earlier, she had underwent a successful surgery on the right eye in the same hospital.

Amali Santhanam, Annamal’s daughter said that they had raised the issue with the doctors but they ignored their complaints and asked them to use eye drops. The four women are going through treatment in a private hospital.

Pudukottai district manager of DBCS programme Dr K Amudhalakshmi blamed the patients for the vision loss. “If no complication arises within one week of the surgery, the doctors are not at fault. Despite our advice to patients to protect their eyes after the surgery, they fail to do so and this leads to loss of vision,” Amudhalakshmi told TOI.

Ophthalmologist of the private hospital, Dr S Gopinath, said there is a 3% chance for complications. He added that people usually ignore follow-up after the operation which is required, according to TOI.

S Natchathiram, 65, and C Reeta, 50, both from Eaganivayal, and S Siluvai Mary, 60, from Vallikadu near Venkidakulam are the other three women who complaint of losing vision within one week of the surgery.