NHRC notice to govt over contaminated eye injection
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Delhi government’s chief secretary over 20 patients experiencing drug reaction after being allegedly administered contaminated eye injection.
The Delhi government, in turn, has sought a report from Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, where the patients received the injection.
“The commission has observed that the contents of the news report raise serious issue of negligence by the GTB Hospital doctors and its management, putting the eyesight of the patients to risk. Accordingly, it has issued a notice to the chief secretary, government of NCT of Delhi calling for a detailed report in the matter within four weeks,” the notice said.
The 20 patients had received an injection – Avastin – for preventing blindness due to ageing, diabetes, hypertension and rupturing blood vessels. After the injection was administered last Saturday, the 20 patients started experiencing pain and blurred vision the next day. They were taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where eight of them had to undergo a surgery.
“Some of the patients had mild reaction and were just kept under observation. However, eight of them needed a vitrectomy, a surgery to remove the infectious part of the vitreous humour. We hope that all of them get most of their vision back,” said Dr Atul Kumar, head of the RP Centre at AIIMS.
“A sample of the medicine has been sent to our microbiology department to check what went wrong,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, the medical director of the hospital. The hospital has constituted a committee to probe the incident.
AFTER THE INJECTION WAS ADMINISTERED LAST SATURDAY, 20 PATIENTS STARTED EXPERIENCING PAIN AND BLURRED VISION