“My eyes have been operated several times. At a time, they were kept opened for three days without blinking. I have seen hell, yet I cannot see anything.”
Those were the words of Mr. Zakariah Idzy, a commercial tricycle rider who went blind after he was given injection at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna.
Idzy was not the only one befallen l by the calamity, but he is the only one of the 10 people initially affected who remains blind; the remaining nine have regained their sights.
The Nation had reported that 10 patients who went to the medical facility with eye ailments were injected on May 28 and they all lost their sights shortly afterwards.
The Avastin injection administered on the patients was not new to the hospital, and it was not the first time most of the 10 patients would be taking the injection, hence the hospital management invited the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to help unravel the mystery behind the negative reaction to the drug. However, the result of the investigation is yet to be made public.
The hospital, determined to right the wrong, carried out a corrective surgery on the 10 patients on June 18, after which they were paraded before newsmen a day later. As at then, nine of the victims confirmed improvement in their sights. In clear departure from their initial conditions of total blindness, they said they could identify colours and see faintly.
That, however, is not the case with Idzy who is yet to see even after undergoing another round of surgery on June 25. Speaking with our correspondent, Idzy, a keke (commercial tricycle) operator and breadwinner of his family, said: “I don’t want to go permanently blind.”
His major concern is his family of nine, which he said has been living on support from neighbours and church members since his ordeal.
Narrating his ordeal, Idzy, an indigene of Sanga Local Government Area, Kaduna State, said before he made a contact with the hospital, he could see with both eyes, only that his right eye was becoming blurry, especially at night. As for the left eye, he said, nothing was wrong with it.
“But after the injection, I could no longer see with either of the two eyes,” he lamented
Idzy said: “I went to the hospital not because I was blind. Before I went there, I could see clearly with my left eye. The only problem was that I could not see clearly with the right eye. Then in the evening, it would become worse.
“So, one day, about two months ago, I came here and I was checked. They told me I had cataract and that I would need surgery. I was given an appointment and told to come with money on that day.
“When I returned on the appointed day, I was told that the operation was no longer going to take place and that instead, I would be given three injections on each of the two eyes, and that each of the six injections would cost N14,500, excluding the money for other drugs.
On hearing that, I became helpless and had to call my relatives to help me raise the money. Luckily, I was able to raise it. So, I was given the first dose of the injection on my left eye.
“To my surprise, I had a problem with my right eye, but they started giving me injection on the left one. When I raised a question about it, they told me it was to prevent the infection in the right eye from spreading to it.
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“To tell you how good my sight was, I came by myself on the day I was given the injection, and I was given another one-month appointment when I would be given two injections, one on each eye. So, I went back home on my own without any problem and waited until the next appointment.
“On the appointed day, I went with my daughter, because from the very first day, I was told not to come alone again. So, we were taken to the theatre. About 11 of us were on the row on that day. I was given the two injections, one on each eye. But, contrary to the first experience, right from the theatre, I started losing my sight, but I concluded within my mind that it was going to wear off within an hour; that it could be due to the fact that the two eyes were injected.
“So, my daughter took me back home. Throughout that day, my vision was very blurred. I also could not sleep on that night because of headache. I have never experienced that kind of headache in my entire life; it was as if my head was going to blow off.
“Then around 4 am the following day, I felt as if something was waved across my face. Then I tried hard to see what it was but that turned out to be the last thing I saw. Since that time, about three weeks now, I have not been able to see anything.
“Immediately that happened, I called for my wife and asked her to call the pastor of my church. I told him to come as soon as possible because I was in a critical condition. He came and prayed for me together with my family.
“Unfortunately, that day was public holiday, so we could not go to the hospital. The next day, I was brought back to the hospital. The service on that day was skeletal because they said it was not a clinic day.
“But I met an official of the hospital who used to assist me whenever I was at the hospital. When we narrated my ordeal to him, he recommended an eye drop and asked my daughter to go and buy it at the pharmacy. He dropped some of it in my eyes and asked us to go home and continue using it till the following day.
“We left the hospital and were already around Kabala Junction when the man called my phone, asking us to come back. On getting to the hospital, I was told that the rest of us that were given the injection had also returned with the same problem.
“Some were luckier than the rest of us because it was their first doses of the injection. So, only the eye that was injected was affected. We were then taken back to the theatre for reexamination and washing of the eyes, but nothing happened.”
After the surgery, which led to the breakthrough in other patients, Idzy raised the alarm that he still could not see anything.
He said: “My brother, I have suffered. My eyes have been operated upon several times. My eyes were kept open for three days without blinking. I have seen hell, yet I cannot see anything.”
But the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the centre, Dr. Mahmoud Alhassan, said there was no cause for alarm as he attributed Idzy’s plight to some underlying factors and slow recovery, explaining that the recovery process is usually gradual and differs from one individual to another.
He said: “Some have been excellent, but we should also not forget the problems they had before our intervention. So, work is in progress. We intervened and we are hoping for the best and to make them better than they were before we intervened.
“This is science, and we know what we are seeing and what to expect from science within human limits. So, we are trained not to lose hope. We will give you information within the limit of what we know in the natural nature of the disease.
“At least, you have confirmed from those you spoke with. They can see now and their situation will keep improving. It is a gradual process. Even one of them that still has issues will also see. They all have different underlying factors and we are working on them one at a time.
”Everything medically possible is being done, including necessary findings of the root cause. We are also awaiting the results of the analysis from NAFDAC. We understand their pains; we equally share in their pains. But we thank God their hope is being rekindled because their situation has improved and still improving.”
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