At least 16 feared blinded after attending a free eye camp in Bikaner

Bikaner, Nov 25 : At least 16 people are feared to have lost their vision and 27 others are suffering eye complication after attending a free eye camp in Bikaner.

The health department of the state had organised the camp at Suratgarh town in Sriganganagar district of the state on November 19. Immediately after the camp, the patients complained of irritation in the eye.

About 43 patients, whose condition is reported to be critical, are now admitted in a hospital Bikaner.

Authorities said they would investigate whether there was dereliction but a doctor doubted whether such a large number could have been infected by negligence alone.

"Negligence in operation cannot lead to infection. Infection is through germs, and they come from somewhere. Either they are present in the body of a patient or come from the environment or are present in instruments or drugs. But at the same time infection can affect one or two people, it cannot affect so many people together. So I think contamination of something might be the reason behind this," said, J C Jain, senior eye surgeon, P.B.M. hospital.

The mobile surgical unit had operated on 78 people and it is alleged that the operation theatre was not properly sterilized or probably wrong medication was used in the camp.

"Doctors told us that infection is the cause behind all this. But infection can happen only to two or three people or maximum five.

There were about 78 patients and about 43 of them are in hospital suffering form eye complication. It might be possible that the ones who have left are also suffering. All the 43 cannot suffer from infection," said Dharampal, a patient.

The reason behind the incident is still not clear and a team of doctors is inspecting the case at Suratgarh town, where the camp was organised.

ANI