In yet another incident highlighting the medical apathy in the national capital, nearly two dozen patients were allegedly administered contaminated medicine in their eyes at Guru Teg Bahadur hospital on April 1. Soon these patients developed redness, itching and pain in their eyes as well as breathlessness.
Eight of the 20 patients had to be surgically operated at AIIMS to save their vision. “Eight of them had to be operated upon to remove the infectious part of the vitreous humor, while the vision of the rest improved after primary treatment,” Dr Atul Kumar, the Chief of R P Centre at the premier health institute, told PTI.
He said these patients were injected with Avastin (Bevacizumab) which is an anti-growth factor drug used to prevent irreversible blindness in patients suffering from diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.
Avastian is classified as a sight-saving drug and is used all over the world. Now in this case, these patients probably were given contaminated injections as they developed blurred vision accompanied with mild pain.
Meanwhile, the hospital authorities have formed a committee to probe lapses,if any, during the administration of the drug.
“Usually this kind of reaction does not happen as Avastin (the medicine used) is a safe drug, used internationally. In a week, I use at least 50 Avastin doses on my patients, but I never faced this issue, ” Kumar added.
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