16 people suffered partial vision loss, after undergoing cataract surgery at a charitable hospital at Maheshnagar, Haryana, officials said on Wednesday.
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has ordered a departmental probe into the incident. A charitable society ‘Sarv Kalyan Sewarth Samithi’ had conducted the operations on November 24. The society is said to have not taken the requisite clearances and permission.
Ambala Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr Vinod Kumar Gupta said:
“The society had no mandatory clearance from us to hold the camp. They had applied for permission in 2013, but it was denied by us as we first wanted to conduct an inspection of the hospital and get details of the surgeons who will conduct operations,” he said.
“However, without permission they conducted the camp. Our team had raided the hospital but it is locked. Case had been registered in this connection by the police regarding negligence on the complaint of the SMO,” he said.
As a result of the botched up operations, most of the patients have now contacted PGI at Chandigarh for further treatment of their eyes.