15 blinded after surgery with suspected infected tools

New Delhi: Fifteen people lost their sight after a doctor used suspected infected equipment to remove cataracts at a free eye surgery camp in Amritsar. A criminal investigation has been launched against the non-governmental organisation and the doctors who carried out the operations, mainly on elderly women, without consulting health authorities. “The government is trying to check the condition of 45 other patients operated on at the camp,” a senior government surgeon Rajiv Bhalla said in Amritsar. "The cause was probably using unsterilised instruments - that can be the only reason for the infection in the eye," said Bhalla. "There are no chances of them having their vision restored."