Hyderabad: Police to grill SD doctors, state sets up probe panels

Hyderabad: Five surgeons including a PG and a trainee of Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital will be grilled by various agencies and committees constituted for a probe into the loss of eyesight of five patients due to infected fluid during surgery at the hospital.

West Zone DCP A. Venkateshwera Rao said a case was registered on the matter with the Humayunnagar police under Section 338 of the IPC for causing grievious hurt and endangering life or personal safety of others. He said that the investigation teams were waiting for evidence to proceed further.

“Two doubts are being raised in this case – doctors’ negligence and contaminated saline. If evidence proves the fault is with doctors, we will take action against them. If the evidence finds fault is with the saline, we’ll take action against the pharmacists and manufacturers,” he said.

Mr Rao said that teams from the Drug Controller were dealing with the collection of evidence. “Besides the medical part, our teams have been studying the case sheets of the patients,” he said.

An official from the hospital said that a committee was constituted on Thursday on the matter. “The committee chaired by deputy superintendent Dr Rajendra Gupta will probe the matter and Dr Aruna from the microbiology department, Dr Raja Lingam from the retinal surgery department and Dr Karunakar will be the members,” the official said.

The committee began grilling the respondents from Thursday morning. Doctors have denied negligence and claimed that the saline bottles used during the surgery were contaminated, resulting in infection in the eyes of the 13 patients, who were in the age group of 60-70.

The government would constitute another committee with doctors from Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal to inquore into the matter, according to officials.