more-in The III Additional District Court here on Friday upheld an order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate sentencing three persons of Joseph Eye Hospital, Tiruchi, including the hospital director and a senior ophthalmologist, to one-year term after 66 villagers lost their vision during a free cataract surgery camp conducted by the hospital in Perambalur in 2008. N. Logeswaran, Judge, II Additional District Court, holding additional charge of the III Additional District Court, also upheld the lower court’s direction that compensation of ?9.85 crore be paid to the affected persons by the hospital and dismissed the appeal filed against the conviction. The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court had convicted and sentenced Nelson Jesudasan, the hospital director and medical superintendent, Christopher Thomas, Chief Administrative Officer, and Ashok, a senior ophthalmologist, on April 22, 2015, holding them guilty of gross and culpable negligence endangering the personal safety of the victims. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the case following a direction from the Madras High Court, contended that the hospital neither followed the established sterile procedures while conducting the surgeries nor maintained the operation theatre properly at its Perambalur branch. The 66 victims were from various villages, including from Villupuram distric,t who were short-listed for the free cataract surgery at the camp.

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