A DISTRESSED pensioner told today how she was struck blind after being injected with the wrong fluid in a bungled cataract operation.

The 80-year-old, from Saltdean, is one of 19 NHS patients mistakenly injected with eye drops during surgery at a private hospital.

The Argus exclusively revealed yesterday how the blunder was made after Brighton Health Care NHS Trust referred 21 patients to the BUPA Gatwick Park Hospital.

East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority has launched an independent inquiry into the surgery, which was contracted out as part of a drive to bring down local waiting lists.

Doctors say it will be three to six months before the full extent of any damage caused to patients' eyes is known, but some may require corrective surgery.

Now one woman, who does not want to be named, has told how she emerged from her operation blind in her left eye.

And she has spoken of how she feared she might never be able to see properly again.

She said: "I knew on the way home that something was wrong.

"You realise it's going to take a few hours to get over the anaesthetic, but I had a gut feeling and when I went in a couple of days later for a check-up it was confirmed.

"I'm not totally blind but I can only see light and dark shadows, that's all, and I have been told I might have to have a corneal graft eventually."

She added: "When anyone has an operation, they are in the surgeon's hands.

"This has affected me psychologically, as well as physically. My mother went blind when she was 64 or 65, so it's always been something I've been scared of happening to me."

The patient has now contacted her solicitor about the possibility of pursuing a claim for compensation once the inquiry findings are known.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.