Monkey gets vision back after ‘first-ever’ surgery

A government health university in Hisar has successfully performed a cataract surgery on a monkey, which had been admitted to the facility after getting burns due to an electric shock.

According to Hisar’s Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, this was the first ever surgery of cataract on a monkey in Haryana.

RN Chaudhary, head of the department of animal surgery and radiology at LUVAS, said the monkey had been brought to the campus by an animal lover Munish, a Hansi-resident, with burn injuries it suffered due to an electric shock.

Initially, it was unable to walk. But after many days of care and treatment, when the monkey started walking, the doctors found that the monkey was not able to see, Chaudhary said in an official release. After this, the monkey was brought to the surgery department of LUVAS for treatment, he said.

After examination in the animal eye unit of the university, Dr Priyanka Duggal found that the monkey had developed white cataract in both eyes.

The vitreous in one eye was also damaged, so the other eye was operated on, and after the surgery the monkey could see, he said.