Ctg hospital injects elderly woman in wrong eye

A specialist doctor in Chittagong city mistakenly administered an injection directly into the right eye of a woman in her eighties instead of the left one yesterday, causing bleeding and severe pain in her eye.

The patient, Hosne Ara, saw eye specialist Dr Delwar Hossain of Chevron Eye Hospital and Research Centre around 20 days ago after suffering from occasional bleeding in both eyes.

The doctor advised her to take six doses of Lucentis, in one eye every week alternately, and she was supposed yesterday to have the second jab in the left eye.

"Mother took a dose in the right eye last week and came to the hospital this morning to have the next dose in her left eye," said Omar Faruk, her son.

"As we were outside the operation theatre, we did not know about the mistake of the doctor and his assistants immediately but when my mother was groaning in pain due to the reaction of the overdose, we surprisingly noticed that her right eye was bandaged."

"We saw her eye in blood," said Faruk.

Each dose of Lucentis costs Tk 26,000 including the service charge, he said.

Dr Delwar admitted that it was a mistake, and proposed to give her the next dose free.

"My assistants made the mistake as the patient told themthat the previous injection was given in the left eye," he said. "But they should have checked her file."

The assistants would face action, he said.

An aggrieved Faruk said, "They are taking high charges from the patients but do not pay proper attention to their treatment.... We see a money-making attitude of the doctors; as if patients were the tools of their business."

The doctor later worked for an hour and relieved her of the pain.

Dr Delwar claimed that the overdose would not have a major adverse effect on the patient, but a former professor of Chittagong Medical College contradicted.

Dr SM Tariq, ex-chairman of the ophthalmology department of CMC, said, "It's a very sensitive injection. The overdosing might rather deteriorate the condition of her eye."