16 suffer serious damage in botched eye operations, 1 arrested

Police today arrested the organiser of the eye camp in which close to half of the 130 persons who were operated upon lost their vision in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.
The coordinator, Manjit Joshi, who had earlier been detained in connection with the botched surgeries, was today arrested, police said.
Joshi was produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate Nidhi Saini in Batala which remanded him to police custody till December 8.
Meanwhile, a top state government officer said 16 persons have suffered serious damage to their eyes.
"It has come to our notice that total 130 surgeries were performed. A special team from PGIMER in Chandigarh yesterday visited the Government Eye and ENT hospital in Amritsar.

"Total 25 patients were examined and 16 were found to have suffered serious damage to their vision," Punjab's Principal Secretary, Health, Vini Mahajan said.

She, however, said that at least six of the victims could get their normal sight back after treatment.
Mahajan, who visited the site where the camp was held, clarified that there was no case of "total blindness since the surgeries was carried out in only one eye".
She said at the state government's behest, a consultation was arranged between the doctors in AIIMS, Delhi with the concerned doctors at the Amritsar hospital so that the best possible treatment could be given to the affected patients.

Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar Ravi Bhagat said 25 patients admitted in the city's government hospital were being provided with the best treatment.
A total 130 patients, most of them above 60 years of age and having poor economic background, were operated upon for removal of cataract in the three-day eye camp at Ghoman village in Gurdaspur last month.
Many of them hailed from places like Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur, Tanda in Hoshiarpur district and nearby villages.