East Godavari: Girl loses eyesight for negligence of staff, departmental inquiry held

The inquiry was held at the Kakinada DMHO office on Saturday into the incident where a girl lost her sight due to the treatment done by an attender in 2015 at Kundur PHC under Ramachandrapuram division. Zone-1 RDMHS G. Savitri and Zone-1 in-charge DD Srinivas Kumar were the investigation officers who were constituted by Anil Singhal, general secretary, state family welfare and medical health department. Among those who received charge memos were former DMHO M Savitramm, staff nurses J Uma and V Suguna, SPHO Durga Prasad, medical officer BJ Praveena and office subordinate (attendant) S Pravalika. Savitri said they had taken a written explanation from the six of them. She said that a written information was taken from the victim in the case pertaining. She said that the investigation report would be sent to the government.

Going into details, the incident, which took place on January 22, 2015, caused a stir at the state level where a girl Gollapalli Udayashree from the same village along with family members went to Kundur PHC at around 4 pm that day after mud fell in her eyes. No doctors or nurses were available at the time and in this backdrop, S Pravalika, who is working as an office subordinate (attendant) there has done the treatment. In this sequence it is said that the needle landed directly in the girl's right eye. Udayashree lost her right eye due to severe bleeding. The then Collector Arun Kumar accepted the incident as Sumota and ordered an inquiry. Along with Pravallikka, criminal cases were registered against the then DMHO, two staff nurses, SPHO and MO.

However, she was acquitted of the criminal case after she proved that she was in outstation at the time of incident. The RDO and the Collector are already investigating the incident and the departmental inquiry was completed on Saturday.