Indian hockey goalie can regain eyesight: US docs
Aug 09, 2009
Hockey star Baljit to be treated in US hospital Injured hockey goalie Baljit hoping for the bestIndian hockey goalie may lose eyesightTop Headlines
New Delhi: There seems to be some ray of hope for Baljit Singh, the Indian hockey keeper who injured his eye during practice in Pune three weeks ago.
Doctors in the US who examined Baljit’s injured right eye say he stands a slight chance of regaining his eyesight.
Baljit flew down to America on August 4 for further treatment and underwent his first check-up at the Retina Specialists of Alabama Hospital with world renowned eye specialist Dr Robert Morris examining the Indian hockey team goalkeeper.
In their report, the doctors said that only further surgery on his injured eye can provide any opportunity to restore or stabilise his eyesight.
The entire procedure has been estimated to cost around $21,000 by the hospital.
Baljit is accompanied by Dr Kiran Gopalakrishnan, a member of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) team that had performed a surgery on his eye.
He will have his post-operative treatment at John Hopkins Medical Centre, Baltimore.
Baljit had been badly injured when a golf ball, with which he was practising, sneaked through his visor to damage his right eye during the coaching camp in Pune.
He was airlifted to New Delhi and an AIIMS team, led by cornea specialist Dr Sudershan Khokhar, conducted a four-hour emergency operation.
The ultrasonography tests showed the globe to be shrunken and deformed with the intra-ocular contents showing heterogeneous appearance with haemorrhage in the vitreous.
The Sports Ministry then decided to bear all the expense of Baljit’s treatment abroad.
Indian Olympic Association secretary Randhir Singh thanked the Ministry for the gesture and said, “I want to thank the government for making all the arrangements and issuing a passport to Baljit’s father in no time so that he can accompany his son. It was also appreciable on the American embassy’s part to issue visa urgently.”
(With inputs from PTI)
Courtesy:IBNLive.com