Doctor arrested for conducting surgery on wrong eye of child

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 2:00 am on Thursday, said Ali Ahmed Masud, chief of Dhanmondi Police Station, reports UNB.

"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.