The Principal Secretary of Health for Gujarat has been served with a notice from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) asking for a response regarding the state’s response to the unsuccessful cataract surgery in the Amreli district within four weeks.
When several elderly patients underwent cataract surgeries at the Shantaba General Hospital in Amreli town in the first week of December, 25 people reported irritation, blurred vision, or total blindness. Some of them were transferred to government hospitals in Rajkot, Bhavnagar, and Ahmedabad, but even after a second operation, they were unable to regain their vision.
A five-person committee was established by the state government, and its mandate was to present the government with a report of its findings. No one knows what happened to the report, according to a patient who asked to remain anonymous.
Kantilal Parmar, a relative of the victim, complained online to the National Human Rights Commission about the situation, claiming that 25 cataract surgery patients had lost their vision as a result.
In the complaint, he drew the commission’s attention to Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees people their fundamental rights to life, to life protection, and to life with dignity, and claimed that they have lost their vision as a result of medical professionals’ negligence. He demanded that the state compensate each victim with Rs. 50 lakh and prosecute the guilty parties.