NHRC issues notice to Tamil Nadu hospital over botched eye surgeries

The commission observed that the contents of the press reports raised serious issues of human rights violations following the apathetic attitude of the medical staff .

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government, over media reports that sixteen patients lost their sight after a botched cataract surgery in a government hospital in Salem district earlier this month.

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government, over media reports that sixteen patients lost their sight after a botched up cataract surgery in a government hospital in Salem district earlier this month. (Representative image)

The commission observed that the contents of the press reports raised serious issues of human rights violations following the apathetic attitude of the medical staff .

It asked the Chief Secretary of the state to send a report on the incident, the reasons behind it and action taken against those responsible for it.

“The vision of eight patients is reportedly to be badly affected, while the remaining eight have suffered minor loss of vision,” a press note released by the Commission said.

Quoting media reports, it said that although at least 25,000 free eye surgeries are successfully performed at various government hospitals in Salem District every year under the National Blindness Control Programme, this shocking incident appears to have happened either due to wrong medicines or some technical issue with the operation theatre.