Gujarat HC takes suo motu cognisance of 17 persons suffering from vision loss after cataract surgery

Ahmedabad, Jan 17 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of a media report about 17 persons complaining of partial or complete loss of vision after undergoing cataract surgery at a trust-run hospital in Ahmedabad district, calling the incident “glaring and deplorable”.

The division bench of Justices AS Supehia and Vimal K Vyas issued notices to the secretary of state health and family welfare department and superintendent of police of Ahmedabad Rural, directing them to file a preliminary report by February 7.

“We take suo motu cognisance of the news article published on January 17 since it raises an issue of grave concern which has a direct impact on the well-being of elderly patients who have suffered vision loss,” Justice Supehia of the division bench said.

“It is also essential to know whether a substandard drug was issued while undertaking the surgery or there was lack of facility or maintenance of medical protocols which are necessary to observe before undertaking any eye surgery,” he said.

The court said the news report does not refer to any criminal complaint filed by the state authorities against the erring medical personnel or any other staff responsible for the incident.

“The incident requires a thorough and sincere investigation for fixing the liability of the erring persons and also to pay suitable compensation to the victims who have ultimately lost their vision,” the court said.

It directed the registry to register the news article as a suo motu writ petition and issue notice to the state Health and Family Welfare Department as well as the SP (Ahmedabad rural).

The court said that the registry shall place the matter before the court of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal during the next date of hearing (February 7).

As many as 17 persons have complained of partial or complete loss of vision after undergoing cataract surgery at a trust-run hospital in Ahmedabad district, prompting authorities to order a probe.

The Gujarat health and family welfare department has formed a nine-member expert committee to conduct an inquiry and also asked the eye hospital at Mandal village not to perform any more cataract surgeries until further orders.

The matter came to light after five persons who underwent surgery at the Ramanand Eye Hospital at Mandal on January 10 were referred to the ophthalmology department at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Monday for treatment, he said.

Officials said that expert doctors were roped in at Ahmedabad and Mandal-based hospitals to treat the affected patients and conduct an inquiry.

The hospital at Mandal had performed nearly 100 cataract surgeries this month, an official had said earlier, adding that a camp had been set up at Viramgam town to screen all these patients for complications.