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GPHC denies causing blindness in youth’s eye
Sahodrie Ramgolan hugs her son, Ravindra Lall, who displays the medication he received at the GPHC.
Following a report in Sunday’s edition of the Kaieteur News under the headline ‘Mother accuses GPHC nurses of causing son’s blindness’, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has denied that the loss of vision resulted from the eye drops that the young man received at the GPHC.
Kaieteur News had reported that Sahodrie Ramgolan, of 18 Croal Street, Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, had accused nurses at the GPHC of causing her son to become blind in the left eye after he used several eye drops they gave to him over time.
She noted that in late July dust from a wooden plank fell into her son’s left eye as he was performing carpentry duties on a building in the village.
According to the woman, when her son arrived home, at around 18:00 hrs on the day of the incident and related the incident to her, she directed him to wash his eyes repeatedly with water.
She said that about two days later he complained of ‘a sticking sensation’ in the eye, and she took him to the GPHC, where a nurse examined the eye and sent him to the pharmacy to collect a bottle of Tobramycin Ophthalmic Solution U.S.P, eye drops which he used for four days before it was finished.
Her son, 19-year-old Ravindra Lall, indicated that on his second visit to the hospital, he was given a bottle of Tobramycin and Dexamethasone Ophthalmic Solution which he used immediately.
The young man said this eye drop, however, began ‘burning and scratching his eyes immediately’. This eye drop was given a week after the first one.
Ravindra said he used the eye-drops twice after and was shocked on the fourth day when he began ‘seeing cloudy’ in the left eye. Three days later, Ravindra was completely blind in the left eye.
The mother told Kaieteur News that on August 18, a vision test taken at the institution revealed that Ravindra was indeed completely blind as she had suspected.
However, in a press release, the GPHC stated that the medication, which the patient was given, is standard for persons with simple eye problems and is used by persons of all ages, including new born babies.
The hospital stated that the young man’s loss of vision is related to an underlying medical condition and this was discussed in detail with him when he visited the Eye Clinic in the presence of his mother.
“Further, the patient and his mother met with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Khan, and also discussed the issue with him. It was therefore very surprising to see Ms. Sahodrie Ramgolan’s inaccurate account of what transpired when she visited the hospital,” the release stated.
Nevertheless, the hospital is urging members of the public to visit the institution for treatment and they should not be deterred because of the inaccurate reports published in the media.
The administration of the hospital maintains that the patient and his mother were treated in a professional manner by the nurse on duty and were only told to sit aside from the other patients because of Ms. Ramgolan’s behaviour, which could not be condoned.
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