Surgical camp probed after patients’ eyes are removed

The Ministry of Health has begun investigating why several patients, who underwent eye surgeries at a medical camp in Oyam District last year, had their eyes removed as a result of complications, Daily Monitor has established.

An official at Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council, the body under the Health ministry mandated to approve medical camps in the country, told this newspaper on condition of anonymity that a team of experts has been dispatched to conduct the inquiry.

“We want to find out how exactly the procedures were conducted and if it was done by qualified persons and if the victims complied with recommendations issued to them. We will then know where the problem stemmed from,” she said.

Dr Fred Nyangkori, a member of the council who conducted the preliminary inquiry, told this newspaper that the investigation had been delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

“The council could not hastily convene because of coronavirus but it had finished scrutinising the report. I visited and met many of these victims, one; to confirm if it is true their eyes were ripped out and if it was because of the said medical camp, which was true,” Dr Nyankori said.

He added: “lt is only until the council conducts its investigations that the government can conclude who was in the wrong. Right now, it is premature to point fingers.”

In October 2020, a preliminary report by the council indicated that more than 10 patients who attended a medical camp conducted by a team of medical workers from Belgium at Pope John Hospital Aber, alias Atapara hospital, in Oyam District in February 2020, had their eyes removed less than a month after they were worked on.

Many of the patients had been diagnosed with cataracts disease, a medical condition which causes clouding or loss of transparency of the lens in the eye as a result of tissue breakdown and protein clumping, but suffered complications as a result of the corrective surgery that was carried out on them.
 
Dr Patrick George Ongu, an eye specialist, who was in charge of the eye department at Lira hospital at the time, told Daily Monitor in a telephone interview that the procedure was messed up and that the regional eye department was not consulted.
    
“They did not follow the right procedures. Operating on cataract is somewhat a simple procedure that would not have gone as far as what they did to these patients whose eyes we removed,” he said on Monday.
“We removed the eyes of two victims from Lira hospital, two were removed from Aboke Health Centre IV.  I also know three other victims of the botched operation whose eyes were removed from Gulu hospital,” he added.

It is not clear who invited the Belgian medics and under what circumstances, although Iceme Sub-county authorities say they were lobbied into the district by Oyam North MP and State Minister for Defence Col Charles Okello Engola.

When contacted, Mr Engola promised to get back to this reporter. However, he never responded to subsequent calls.
Mr Nicholas Opio, the Iceme LC3 chairman said the public was mobilised for the camp that was to be held in his area.

“Registration took place from Iceme Health Centre III here and this is where everything was to be done, but the choice for Atapara Hospital came due to space constraints since they had better theatres,” Mr Opio said.

Repeated attempts to seek comments from authorities of Atapara Hospital were futile by press time.
However, Dr Samuel Okori, director of the facility, recently confirmed to journalists that the medical camp was conducted at the facility.

He also said the Health ministry officials had come to the hospital over the same and checked the equipment that was used during the operation and found it to be in good condition.

Ms Gillian Akullu, the Oyam Resident District Commissioner said a taskforce established by the district discovered that there was negligence among the victims, who did not adequately care for themselves as directed by the specialists.

“We are talking about more than a hundred eye surgeries during the camp. It becomes very difficult to fault the doctors if only pockets of patients became victims,” Ms Akullu said.

VICTIMS SPEAK OUT
Mr Robert Ongole, 64, a carpenter in Adwong Village, was operated on at the medical camp at Atapara Hospital on February 12.
Mr Ongole, who had been diagnosed with cataract disease earlier at Lira hospital, opted for the free surgery since he could not raise Shs200,000 needed for operation.  

However, when he woke up after the operation, he was in so much pain and complained to one of the white doctors, who then told him that the pain was the aftermath of the procedure but would soon reduce.
“My pain did not go down until the fourth day when I returned there. They told me that the Belgian medics had already left and that I should try Lira or Gulu hospitals for assistance since they were unable to,” he added.

At Lira hospital, doctors recommended that Mr Ongole’s left eye be removed to avoid the possibility of developing more complications including brain damage.
In the doctor’s report that this newspaper saw, his eye had developed sepsis and that muscles attaching his eyeballs to the socket were detached beyond repair.

“It is nearly a year now and I closed the workshop since I cannot perform my usual chores,” he said.
Ms Milly Alaba Alunga, 63, is another victim of the operation.
Once the operation was done, Ms Alunga did not immediately feel pain but after a few hours the pain came and it was a lot.
The pain persisted and on February 16, pus started oozing from her eye.

At first, she washed it and applied the eye drops, however, it seemed to worsen it.
Mr Joe Aman, Ms Alunga’s brother said his sister’s eye started emitting a foul smell five days after the operation.

Once the hospital told them they could not help since they had no capacity to assess or handle the situation, Mr Aman said he rushed his sister to Lira Hospital where the health officer told her that they had received similar cases from Atapara.
 Ms Alunga was transferred to Mengo Hospital in Kampala where her eye was removed, according to Mr Aman.

“I am not happy with what happened. My sister went to the hospital when she could see but returned blind. The family is preparing to take legal redress because there was a lot of negligence in the whole process,” Mr Aman noted.
 When Mr Simpson Ojok, 48, a resident of Amac Town Council in Lira District, went for the medical camp on February 12, 2020, he was told he had a cataract in his right eye.

“I underwent an operation and was discharged the following day but I realised that I had completely lost sight in the operated eye before I left the hospital,” he said.
 He added:  “After 23 days, my right eye was removed from Lira hospital because I was in so much pain, besides, it had also developed sepsis.”