Six weeks after 37 people lost sight in one of their eyes — including two who have been rendered completely blind — following a botched-up eye surgery at a camp in Ghuman in Gurdaspur, neither have all of them received the Rs 1 lakh compensation announced by the Punjab Government nor have the accused in the case been arrested.
At the Government Eye and ENT Hospital at Majitha Road here, where some of the victims of the tragedy are still admitted, the patience of six of those still admitted and their attendants is wearing thin. While the victims are still battling pain, watering eyes and loss of sight, for their attendants it is about the loss of their ability to get back to their routine.
“My mother has still not received the Rs 1 lakh compensation. Her sight has not been restored and only the infection has been somewhat contained,” rued Gurjeet Kaur, whose mother Balveer Kaur of Sufian village, had underone cataract surgery on November 4.
Balveer, who lost sight in her left eye, said doctors from Delhi and Chandigarh had also visited her but it has not helped in restoration of her sight.
Sitting on the bed opposite her’s, Rakhi of Pakhlo Kitali Sahib village in Gurdaspur also noted that the financial aid has not been forthcoming. Even Balbir Kaur of Phattupur in Gurdaspur said she has not received any compensation.
But for others like Sampooran Kaur, Baldev Singh and Shivinder Kaur, who have also got the Rs 1 lakh cheques, the amount barely covers the amount they had spent on their treatment in private hospitals before they were moved by the government here.
As Harpal Singh, a taxi driver and son of Sampooran, noted: “I had spent nearly Rs 60,000 on my mother’s treatment before we came here. For the last 45 days I have not been able to go back to work. My sisters, who are married, have also been busy attending to my mother, who was in acute pain for a long time.”
A senior doctor at the hospital claimed the issue of compensation was not a serious one. “Cheques have been issued to most of the nearly 25 people who have already been discharged. There were spelling mistakes in some and that is why some of the patients have not got them.” But these words offer little solace to the patients.
With passage of time, the interest of people in their plight has also waned, they say. Barring some men from Congress MP Amrinder Singh’s team who continue to bring them food thrice a day, the outside world appears to have lost interest, they regret.
But Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar Ravi Bhagat said Rs 37 lakhs have been received for payment of compensation and assured that all 37 victims would get their compensation.
As for the case, the new Senior Superintendent of Police of Batala, Inderbir Singh, told The Hindu that Dr. Vivek Arora of Jalandhar, who had conducted the operations, has been named in the FIR. “But he has not been arrested because there are specific directions from the Supreme Court which stated that a panel of doctors should be formed in such cases to establish guilt of the medical staff. Accordingly, we had written to the Civil Surgeon to constitute a team of experts. But that team has not been formed yet.”
For their part, the police is investigating not only the role of the doctor who performed the surgeries, but also the NGO which organised the camp and the administration of the hospital where the surgeries were performed.
However, as it has now been established that all the victims were operated on the last day of the three-day camp, a senior eye specialist said it appears that either one of the three solutions which were used in the operation were infected or some of the instruments used were not properly sterilised. “In the examination of the patients we had not come across any surgical negligence,” he added.
He also questioned the manner of screening of the patients, saying two of them did not have sight in one of their eyes and have now lost it in the other as well which has left them completely blind. "Ïdeally such cases are never operated upon at camps."
