Nellore, Oct 27th: The District Administration has booked a case against the Corporate Bollineni Eye Hospital and Research Centre in this town for the botched up eye surgeries conducted by it resulting in the loss of eye sight of ten patients. The District Superintendent of Police B Malla Reddy told UNI a case of negligence was registered against the hospital management and the doctors, who performed the operations. Mr Reddy said the police booked a case of negligence under section 338 of the Indian Penal Code (cause grievous hurt by an act which endangers human life) against the hospital and the doctors and investigation was on to fix the responsibility on the accused.

He said the police would question the Ophthalmologists in due course, based on the case. After investigations, if the situation warrants, we can slap more serious cases against the offenders, the SP said. A case of negligence was registered after the State Government yesterday directed the District Collector K Ramagopal to take action against the Foundation and doctors. A team of doctors of Bollineni Eye Hospital and Research Centre had conducted a camp in a couple of villages at Indukurpet Mandal in the district on October 18.

Officials said the doctors conducted surgeries on 24 people on October 20. 15 patients, who were operated upon at the hospital, came back the next day with complaints of severe pain and a burning sensation. They were then shifted to Sankara Nethralaya at Chennai, where the doctors said the chances of getting their eyesight back were bleak. The doctors had to remove eyeballs of four people to prevent infection from spreading to other parts. The Andhra Pradesh government announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 from the Chief Minister's Relief fund (CMRF) and ensured the release of Rs 1.5 lakh each, to the ten affected, from hospital management for the patients, who lost their eye sight.