How could doctors forget to remove my sutures? Cataract patient has surgical thread stuck in eye for two years
Tuen Mun Hospital says removal of stitches to pensioner’s left eye ‘complied with standards’
A cataract patient at Tuen Mun Eye Centre claims doctors were negligent after surgical thread from an operation two years ago remained in an eye.
Lee Yau-ming, 68, said doctors failed to carry out thorough checks despite his repeated complaints of pain and swelling.
However a private eye specialist said threads used in cataract surgery may remain for some time if there was no specific discomfort.
Lee first received cataract surgery on his left eye at the centre, which is run by Tuen Mun Hospital, on July 17, 2014, after suffering blindness for about a month.
“I started to feel some discomfort in my eye just a week after the surgery...it hurts even when I blink,” Lee, who is also diabetic, said.
He said despite his complaints, doctors at follow-up appointments only assured him the surgery was fine and failed to carry out checks.
It was only at an appointment on June 30 last year, almost a year after his surgery and about his third visit to the centre, that a doctor told him there was still thread in his eye.