KAKINADA: East Godavari district collector Kartikeya Mishra has issued orders for seizure of the Koduru Ranga Rao Lions' Eye Hospital in Jaggampeta, holding it responsible for the loss of vision of 10 people due to botched eye surgeries performed by it during a free medical camp in April.
The authorities have also written to the AP Medical Council to cancel the registration of eye surgeon P Vijay Bhaskar who had performed the surgeries. The decision came after TNIE published a series of stories on the victims' plight, the negligence of hospital in extending post-operative care and conduct of the surgeries sans valid permissions.
Deputy chief minister N Chinna Rajappa and Health minister Kamineni Srinivas intervened to take action against the hospital.
Based on a detailed report submitted by P Mallikarjuna Raju, programme manager of District Blindness Control Society (DBCS), collector Kartikeya Mishra has issued orders to the DM&HO to seize the hospital.
10 daily wagers from Vetlapalem (near Samalkot) and J Kottur (Jaggampeta) villages lost their vision, two of them permanently, due to the botched surgeries. Post surgery, the patients developed itching, redness, watering and pain in their eyes. The hospital administered them first aid, saying that it was common in eye surgeries.
However, as days passed by, the difficulties mounted and the hospital kept on changing medicines which yielded little. The probe report says that poor post-operative care resulted in the infections.
"We have ordered closure of the hospital with immediate effect. A ban has been imposed on the eye surgeon too. We sent a letter to the AP Medical Council to cancel his registration. The DM&HO has been instructed to arrange the necessary medical aid to the victims," said the collector.
According to DM&HO, the hospital has been seized.
"We have sent a letter to the Medical Council, along with the memo copies, for cancelling the surgeon's professional licence," he said. Sources said that the authorities are also thinking of filing cases against the hospital.
Decision on compensation on July 25
After the seizure, the Lions Club higher officials said that they, along with the state governor, will meet in Vizag on July 25 to discuss the issue and hopefully a decision on compensation will be taken.
But, the hospital trust board member DVN Raju said he did not know about the seizure order. "Anyway, the issue will be dealt with by our higher authorities. We have been continuing with the treatment to all the victims.
We are confident about the restoration of their vision," he said.
Dubious record
The Lions Hospital, since its inception in 2011-12 fiscal year, has performed more than 4,500 surgeries by organising free eye screening camps with funding from donors and philanthropists. But, the hospital got the mandatory nod for performing surgeries in February this year which means thousands of surgeries were performed sans authorisation.
The probe conducted by the DBCS has revealed that some 47 surgeries were performed on two successive days amid unhygienic conditions during the free camp held in April.
Earlier reports published in these columns had the hospital representatives confessing that surgeries were performed in a hurry to meet the target set up by the programme of HelpAge India with which the hospital had a liaison for the eye surgery camps.
Probe has revealed that the surgeries were performed in the absence of anaesthetists and a nurse did the job. The hospital does not have a regular ophthalmologist and the hospital representatives blame it on the fund crunch.
What went wrong
We have ordered closure of the hospital with immediate effect. A ban has been imposed on the eye surgeon too. We sent a letter to the AP Medical Council to cancel his registration. The DM&HO has been instructed to arrange the necessary medical aid to the victims - Kartikeya Mishra, EG collector