Fifty eight-year-old Rafiq Khan, a tempo driver, will never be able to drive again. The sole breadwinner of his family lost his left eye after catching an infection after a cataract surgery at the HBT Trauma Care Hospital in Jogeshwari. The hospital-acquired infection resulted in a corneal melt. Doctors feared the infection would spread to his brain, and had to eventually carry out an evisceration surgery, removing the eye’s contents and leaving a hollow cavity.
Rafiq Khan
“I don’t know what to do for a living now,” Mr. Khan, one of the seven patients to have suffered varying degrees of vision loss after being operated at the hospital on January 4, told The Hindu on Wednesday. He has been re-admitted to KEM Hospital in Parel after his sutures opened. Mr. Khan has been a driver for 40 years. After losing his only son to cancer last year, he provides for his wife, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. “Now I am nothing but a liability,” Mr. Khan said.
He wants the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to take stringent action against those responsible and compensate him for the grievous negligence. “I cannot afford a private hospital. And going to a public hospital has ruined my life,” the Powai resident said.
Autorickshaw driver Gautam Gavane (44), who also lost his left eye, has a similar story. The Goregaon resident has two children studying in Class XI and XII. His wife, Kavita, works as a sweeper. “With no vision in one eye, he cannot drive. He will have to start his life all over again,” Mr. Gavane’s brother Satish said.
Gautam Gavane
Mr. Gavane was discharged from KEM Hospital on January 22, but was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit on January 25. “He suddenly became disorientated and his hands and legs were swollen. He was shifted out of the ICU two days ago,” Satish said.
Fatima Shaikh (87) also remains hospitalised after slipping in the hospital’s bathroom after the eye surgery. “She is reacting to flashes of light and can see blurry movement. But that’s hardly anything,” her son Liyakath said, adding that she has been kept in hospital for an orthopaedic surgery.
Fatima Shaikh
The remaining four patients have gone home, but all have some degree of vision loss. “My mother could cook and move around the house. But now she just sits in one place,” said Om Khadka, son of 72-year-old Veludevi, who was operated on for cataract. “The BMC has to compensate all the patients. They cannot ignore such huge negligence by simply ordering inquiries,” Mr. Khadka said.
Two inquiries have been conducted into the botched surgeries, and a third is currently being carried out by Additional Municipal Commissioner Idzes Kundan.
The first report had found pseudomonas, a severe bacterial infection, in the swabs taken from the patient, and staphylococcus aureus in the sterile viscoelastic material used in the operation theatre. It pointed out that an untrained multi-purpose worker was functioning as a ward boy, sweeper, dresser, and assistant in all operation theatres, and that the operation theatre was washed only once in two weeks.
After the second report was inconclusive, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta said the probe was carried out in a casual manner and ordered a third inquiry. As many as 25 statements have been taken for the third inquiry so far.
The matter is also being investigated by the Jogeshwari police, who have taken statements of all patients.
