HYDERABAD, Nov 13: As senior ophthalmologists urged their colleagues, during a recently held ophthalmology conference, to take utmost care of patients during surgical interventions, there appeared an appalling report on November 11 which revealed how carelessly poor patients at the Sindh government’s eye infirmary were being treated.

The case is of Nadeem Umrani, who was operated upon and is a sad story of the carelessness he faced at the hands of ophthalmologists of the hospital running under the administrative control of medical superintendent of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS).

The patient was suffering from dacryo cisto rhinostomy, described as watery discharge from eye, since many months. According to his brother Ali Sher, the patient was under the treatment of Dr Ashok Kumar.

The patient says that he was given the date of eye surgery some three months back, proofs of which are the receipts he had with him.

The patient was asked to report on November 6 as the doctor was busy in an eye conference on 3rd of the month when the date for surgery was fixed, Sher told Dawn.

All along, doctor kept treating the right eye instead of the affected left and even operated the healthy one on November 11 he said adding that after surgery the doctor declared it an eye tube problem. The family was surprised when they found that the healthy eye was operated.

Nadeem approached various doctors and they kept mum over his problem. They did not take the family into confidence about the nature of illness, a family member said.

Now, after bungled surgery, the patient was being forced to quit the hospital, said relatives.

Attempts to reach to Dr Faheemullah Shaikh and Dr Mahtab who did the surgery remained futile, while Dr Kumar said that the patient had problems in both his eyes but the right one could not be operated upon as it had infection. He further said that once the infection subsides, the procedure would be carried on the other eye also.

The medical superintendent of the hospital told Dawn that doctors operated the left eye as the problem in it was severe when examined in the theatre. They deferred the procedure of right eye as a precaution due to heavy water discharge from it, he said. The MS however, admitted of not making proper counseling and consultation with the patient regarding his problem.

To a question about action or inquiry, he replied the doctors concerned were not under his administrative control as vice chancellor of the University of Medical and Health had powers to look into it.

Nadeem’s father is a driver and resident of Chukhi, Rural taluka, Hyderabad district.