“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 more at https://arewagists..com/2019/06/i-see-hell-onlysays-man-blinded-at.html