A 112-year-old woman here came under the scalpel for a successful cataract surgery. The success story was scripted at the Melvin Jones lions Eye Hospital at Buxibazar here on Tuesday when Dr Raja Agarwal performed the surgery on the left eye of Khairun Nisha of nearby Pension lane, who shows her authentic date of birth recorded as January 15, 1902.
Dr Agarwal claims that this is perhaps a world record he has created after performing cataract surgery on such an elderly person.
In fact, the woman had created a record two years ago when her right eye was successfully operated to remove cataract by the same doctor in the same hospital. While two years ago Dr Agarwal was very nervous to perform the surgery because of the old age of the patient, this time he was more confident as Khairun appeared more cooperative.
“She was very cooperative under the scalpel and all her vital parameters were normal for the surgery,” said a beaming Agarwal after perhaps performing the surgery of his lifetime.
Having more than 160 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, Khairun turned complete blind due to cataract two years ago. She was identified by a team of doctors of the hospital during their routine camps. At the insistence of her family members and looking at the enthusiasm of the woman, the hospital thought duty-bound to go ahead with the surgery in 2010.
The hospital is conducting at least two camps in a week, and after screening the cataract patients, they are brought to the hospital by its own bus for surgery. The hospital does not charge anything for the surgery, medicines and transportation from the patients.
“We are doing this with the help of the District Blindness Control Society and donations from all our members,” said a member of the hospital, Anand Sethia, adding that the hospital is planning to perform glaucoma, retina and diabetic retinopathy in future, and for this necessary equipments are being procured.