Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Sunday issued a rule upon the respondents to show cause as to why they should not be directed to compensate 20 people who lost their eye-sight following a surgery in the Impact Masudul Haque Memorial Health Centre of Chuadanga.
The HC Bench of Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir passed the order after hearing a writ petition seeking compensation of Tk 20 crore for 20 people who lost their eye-sight following surgery on March 5.
In the rule, the court also wanted to know as to why the inaction of the health centre and Dr Shahin in adopting proper safety measures while conducting the eye operations of the mass people should not be declared illegal and as to why legal action should not be taken against the health centre authorities and the physician for their reported mistreat and negligence in conducting unsafe eye operations during a three-day eye camp.
The Health Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of the Directorate of the Health Services, Civil Surgeon of Chuadanga, Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of Chuadanga, Director of the Health Centre Hasib Mahmud, Physician Md Shahin and two other respondents have to comply with the rule within two weeks.
On March 29 in 2018, a report was published in a Bengali daily saying that 20 people lost their eye-sight after surgery in an eye camp.
Advocate Amit Das Gupta, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed a writ petition earlier on Sunday praying to the HC to direct the Impact Masudul Haque Memorial Health Centre, organiser of the eye camp, and its doctor Md Shahin, who conducted the surgeries, to pay compensation Tk 20 crore to the 20 victims.
Amit Das Gupta appeared in the court infavour of the petition, while Deputy Attorney General S M Moniruzzaman stood for the State.
After the court order, Amit Das Gupta said, the court issued the rule as we wanted. The petition may be heard after the summer vacation of the court.
The published report said, Impact Masudul Haque Memorial Health Centre arranged a three-day eye-camp on March 4. On the second day of the camp, 24 people underwent surgery in their eyes and found their eyes infected from the following day.
In this situation they communicated with the hospital. But the hospital authorities did not care of their allegations. Later, some of the patients came to Dhaka for better treatment. But it was too late. In the mean time, 19 of the 20 patients had lost one of their eyes.
Another woman patient’s situation is critical. She had double operation in her left eye in Dhaka. But she did not get back her sight yet.
All the patients are poor, the report said.
