At least 65 people have lost their vision after cataract surgery at a private eye hospital in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur city, with many being advised removal of the severely infected and blinded eye.

Doctors at a government medical college in Muzaffarpur city, 90km from Patna, who have seen many of the patients said the vision loss was complete in the infected eyes and the eye sockets were “filled with pus”.

Surgical removal of the eye was advised in cases where medically treating the condition was deemed impossible and there was fear of the infection spreading to the other eye, blinding it too, and even becoming life-threatening.

All the patients had undergone the operation on November 22 at Eye Hospital. A team of health officials that district magistrate Pranav Kumar has assigned to probe the matter suspects the infection spread from the operation theatre and has sealed it. It is expected to submit its report on Thursday.

Kumar said a Muzaffarpur-based eye surgeon had allegedly performed “all the surgeries in a day”, and added that “investigations are on and we are preparing to register an FIR”.

He named the surgeon but this newspaper could not reach him or Eye Hospital for comments.

Medical Council of India guidelines stipulate that an eye surgeon cannot perform more than 12 surgeries on a single day.

When the patients’ bandages were removed a couple of days after the surgery, they found they could not see with the affected eyes. Doctors advised removal of the eyes.

The matter became public after several of the patients visited the government-run Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur on Tuesday to get their eyes surgically removed.

“We have removed the infected eyes of 11 people so far. Three others will have the operation on Thursday,” SKMCH superintendent Babu Saheb Jha told The Telegraph.

“It was a bacterial infection and the eye sockets were filled with pus. Such infections develop within 24 hours and need to be treated immediately; otherwise they permanently damage the eye.”

Jha added: “There can be various reasons for such infections, including lack of hygiene at the hospital or on the patient’s part. However, the cases have developed in a cluster instead of being sporadic, indicating either there was something wrong in the operation theatre, or some infected or expired material was used in the surgery.”

District magistrate Kumar said: “Some 65 or 66 people had cataract surgery at Eye Hospital. We have made a list of their names and addresses.”

He added: “Swabs from their eyes are being sent for tests. At least 20 are being currently treated according to the level of their infection.”

Health department sources said the probe team had found out that 328 people had undergone cataract surgery between November 22 and November 28 at Eye Hospital. The same doctor is suspected to have conducted all the surgeries.

Muzaffarpur civil surgeon Vinay Kumar Sharma and additional chief medical officer Subhas Prasad Singh could not be contacted as their mobile phones were switched off.

Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav attacked chief minister Nitish Kumar and health minister Mangal Pandey (BJP).

“This is another example of the poor and useless health system of Bihar. The chief minister and the health minister are not bothered about the public,” he said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former chief minister Rabri Devi demonstrated outside the legislative council with her party colleagues.