Cartoon by Ali Ziarati

Head of Farabi Hospital: We have operated on more than a thousand eye injuries

BBC Persian: Dr. Ghasem Fakhrai, head of Farabi Eye Hospital, says that following the January protests, “a total of a thousand people” came to the hospital with torn eyes, all of whom underwent initial emergency surgery, and many of whom are still receiving treatment.

According to the head of the hospital, this figure refers to those who specifically had one or both eyes damaged and does not include eyelid tears and other injuries caused by bullets or shrapnel hitting the face.

Dr. Fakhrai told ISNA: “Before January 8, about 55 injured people with torn eyes who needed emergency surgery came to this medical center and were admitted and treated from various cities, especially Hamedan, Aligudarz, and Azna.”

According to him: “Since early Friday morning (January 9), the number of patients, all of whom were suffering from torn eyes, has increased. Unfortunately, 17 patients had injuries to both eyes. More than 700 patients had visited Farabi Hospital by Saturday morning (January 10), and we referred 196 patients to other ophthalmology hospitals in Tehran. In total, about 1,000 patients have visited Farabi Hospital, and these patients are people who had torn eyes and needed emergency surgery.”

Referring to the free treatment of the patients, the eye surgeon said: “Surgeries to remove the bullet are being carried out in the second stage of treatment of the injured in this hospital, and the passage of time will determine how many of the injured eyes can be saved and how many must be evacuated.”

Maryam Sabbaghi, head nurse at Farabi Hospital, also says that during this time, “all the hospital beds” have been filled, and protesters with damaged eyes have been hospitalized on mobile beds and stretchers borrowed from other hospitals. She also says that most of the injured were young people.

Dr. Hamid Hematpour, a Norwegian-based physician and human rights activist, previously told BBC Persian that he had received numerous accounts from doctors inside Iran about the situation in hospitals on January 8 and 9, indicating “very dire” conditions in hospitals, with some patients “brought to hospitals with gunshot wounds to the head and neck and bullets in the eyes.”

Images and reports from Iran indicate unprecedented violence in the suppression of the January 1404 protests, with human rights groups estimating that thousands of people have been killed and injured since the protests began.