Recently, the news that Ai Fen, the head of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital and the “sentinel” of the pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan, had been misdiagnosed by Aier Eye Care for her right eye, resulting in near blindness, has been making the rounds on the Internet. The incident continues to ferment, and a few days ago, a mainland media report said that Aier Ophthalmology, which has an annual revenue of nearly 10 billion yuan, has had several medical incidents resulting in patients’ blindness.
On Dec. 31 last year, Ai Fen revealed to the media that she was suspected to have been misdiagnosed by Aier Eye Care, resulting in near-blindness in her right eye. She said she was referred by an acquaintance to Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital in May 2020 for treatment of her eye disease, and the hospital did the IOL implantation for her, spending a total of 29,000 yuan for the surgery. However, five months after the surgery, Ai Fen suddenly found that her right eye was “covered by a cloth”, and her right eye was very blurry, and the lower left corner of her right eye was missing. A fellow doctor told her that the dimness of the visual field was a problem with the fundus, and that fundus degeneration generally refers to retinal degeneration, which is a kind of fundus lesion, and that treating fundus degeneration with laser is much cheaper than implanting a crystal. However, Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital did the IOL implantation surgery for her and did not examine Ai Fen’s fundus before the surgery.
Therefore, Ai Fen said that there was reason to suspect that Aier had ignored the routine operation and performed the lens implantation for her for the sake of profit. Because it is cheap to treat fundus degeneration with laser, but crystal implantation costs 29,000 yuan.
Subsequently, the land media Sina Finance also disclosed on January 4 that Aier Ophthalmology has had frequent medical incidents, which have led to blindness in patients many times, and has also released false propaganda advertisements.
Medical malpractice cases that occurred in recent years
Public information shows that in recent years, medical accidents and medical disputes have occurred at Aier Eye Hospital, and many cases are similar to Dr. Affin’s situation.
On April 8, 2017, patient Zhou Moumou, who had been seen at Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital for “protrusion of the left eyeball for nearly 5 months”, was diagnosed with “hyperthyroidism protrusion” and was treated with “lidocaine + tretinoin” on February 14, March 7 and April 8. After the injection on April 8, the left eye became severely distended and painful, unable to see objects, and was then admitted to the orbital department on the 11th floor for emergency observation, and was discharged on May 5, and so far the visual impairment of the left eye could not be cured. After the judicial appraisal, Zhoumoumou’s left eye blindness level 3 was assessed as grade 9 disability; Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital’s treatment process of Zhoumoumou was medically negligent; there is a causal relationship between medical negligence and Zhoumoumou’s damage consequences, which is the main cause of his damage consequences.
On February 1, 2017, patient Wang Moumou sought treatment at Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital for decreased vision in his left eye. Without being fully informed of the risks, Aier Eye took surgical treatment on Wang Moumou on February 6, 2017. However, during the surgery, the IOL prepared by Wuhan Aier Eye was not the right size and could not be successfully installed, resulting in Wang’s hemorrhage; and because the hospital did not make any emergency preparations, the corresponding doctors and equipment could not be available in time when the treatment plan was urgently changed, resulting in a delay of nearly six hours for Wang’s surgery that only took one hour. Now Wang’s left eye is completely blind, and the right eye vision is also significantly reduced. The judicial appraisal, Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital hospital in the appraisee Wang Moumou’s diagnosis and treatment activities there is negligence, diagnosis and treatment activities and the appraisee damage consequences of the causal relationship between the hospital’s medical negligence participation coefficient for the E level. That is, the hospital’s medical negligence participation is 60%-90%, and the recommended hospital medical negligence participation coefficient value is 70%.
On January 16, 2018, the patient Liu was discharged from Huludao Aier Eye Hospital after the left eye biosurgery and silicone oil crystal implantation. on January 25, 2018, Liu was discharged from the hospital, but the negligent behavior of Huludao Aier Eye Hospital in the treatment process led to Liu’s later retinal detachment and silicone oil could not be removed, which eventually caused Liu’s left eye blindness. The Huludao Medical Association identified that Aier Eye’s medical activities on Liu constituted a class four medical malpractice.
In addition to medical malpractice, Aier Eye Hospital has also been punished for issuing false advertisements.
According to the “2019 first batch of typical false and illegal advertising cases” published on the website of the General Administration of Market Supervision, Henan Xuchang Aier Eye Hospital Co., Ltd. released medical advertisements with the content “laser myopia surgery is approved by the national military inspection, the National Sports Commission, the Military Commission, the Education Commission and other five ministries jointly below, through the excimer laser correction of myopia, you can participate in various examinations and military service”. Through the official website of the medical advertising containing the image of child stars endorsement publicity pictures, “Aier Eye Group corneal bank, the success rate of surgery about 90%” and other content, in violation of the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law. Therefore, it was fined 100,000 yuan by the local industry and commerce bureau and stopped false advertising.
It is reported that the revenue of Ai’er in 2019 is nearly 10 billion RMB. However, since the continued fermentation of Affin’s right eye blindness, the stock has recently been in a constant downward trend, and only on the 4th day, the maximum decline of Aier Eye stock was more than 9%.
Public information shows that Aier Eye was established in January 2003, with a registered capital of 412.151 million yuan. Aier Medical Investment Group Ltd. was established in 2007, with a registered capital of 43.385 million yuan. Aier Ophthalmology landed on the GEM in 2009. At present, it has become the largest private ophthalmic medical institution in China. As of November 30, 2020, there are 434 hospitals and 118 outpatient clinics opened in mainland China under Aier Eye Care and M&A Fund. Cataract surgery program belongs to the important business segment of Aier Eye.
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