Online Desk  :   Police have arrested Dr Shahedara Begum, a paediatric ophthalmologist at the Bangladesh Eye Hospital in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi, for conducting a “surgery” on the right eye of a child patient instead of the left one by “mistake”. She was arrested from her residence in Elephant Road around 2am on Thursday, said Ali Ahmed Masud, chief of Dhanmondi Police Station. “The child’s father Mahmud Hasan filed a case yesterday complaining of medical malpractice. We have arrested her over the case,” he said. One-and-a-half-year old Irtija Ariz Hasan was taken to see Shahedara, who is also a strabismus surgeon, with some eye ailments on Tuesday, police said, citing the child’s family.

The physician confirmed there was a dirt-like object in the left eye of the child. The child underwent all the necessary medical tests required before the surgery, was given anesthesia and taken to the operation theatre. However, after the child was brought out of the operation theatre, the family saw that the surgery had been performed on the right eye instead of the left one. After they informed the doctor, the child was taken to the operation theatre again and the surgery was completed on the left eye, the family alleged.

Dr Afroza Khanam, a consultant of the Bangladesh Eye Hospital, said the child was brought to the hospital on Tuesday and Dr Shahedara was put in charge of the treatment. “She conducted tests and found foreign bodies (hair) in her right eye which needed to be removed. The [foreign bodies] were irritating the child’s cornea. The doctor gave the child anesthesia to induce sleep and removed hair and dirt from the right eye. Later she covered the eye with bandages as the cornea was sore.” When the child was returned to the parents, they said the left eye had problems and subsequently another procedure was carried out to remove hair from the other eye, Afroza added.

“This only took two-three minutes. It’s not a surgery, just a procedure. The hair was removed using forceps, which is used to pluck grey hair. The left eye did not even need dressing. This is what the patient’s relatives are saying to be an operation on the right eye instead of the problematic left. This is just a misunderstanding.”