Clarification

Published April 29, 2003

Apropos a news item appeared on Sunday, Dr Abdul Hamid has issued a statement seeking to clarify that Mr Muhammad Asghar had come to him for the laser treatment of cataract and not for glaucoma and that the procedure done on him involved removal of cataractus lens.

At the end of the surgical procedure, the statement said, the patient was informed in detail about the very common complication of cataract surgery known as “Posterior capsular rent” which occurred accidentally due to the sudden movement of head by the patient while the phaco probe was inside the eye.

“Not only the patient himself but his wife was also informed in detail,” the statement said, and added: “Technically the artificial intraocular lens could not be implanted, which is usually done after eight weeks of primary surgery in such cases.”

The doctor also sought to clarify that he had left the hospital after completing the surgical procedure on the patient because he was not supposed to see many outdoor patients at the Mumtaz Bakhtawar Trust Hospital where he goes to operate the poor, deserving people.

The statement said the patient had developed a serious misunderstanding by some other consultant that his lens had been removed because the cataract surgery, for which he had come, is removal of the lens.