KOLKATA: The 10-day-old baby girl, whose thumb was cut off by a negligent nurse in a government hospital in North Bengal, will remain physically challenged for life as it was too late for reconstructive surgery.
The medical board comprising plastic surgeons and other experts at the state-owned super speciality SSKM Hospital here on Wednesday said that it was too late to surgically join the severed thumb since it was cut off on Sunday night at Balurghat district government hospital in South Dinajpur district.
The parents brought the new born to SSKM Hospital, after travelling 440 kms in an ambulance, the fare for which was paid by an association of patients in the district and reached here on Tuesday.
The surgeons said that such kind of reconstructive surgeries were successful if the patient were brought to the operation theatre within three to four hours after suffering the injury. The new born’s thumb was cut off by a nurse Rakhi Sarkar while she was removing a saline channel on Sunday late night.
The nurse dumped the severed thumb as well as the pair of surgical scissors in to a dustbin in the ward. The father of the girl child, Babla mondal, recovered them from the dustbin.
The district government hospital had referred the grievously injured child to North Bengal Medical College in Siliguri in Darjeeling district, though, such facilities for reconstructive surgery were not available there.
The parents were refused admission and sent back to the same district hospital.
Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday, at a programme in SSKM Hospital, had remarked, “The incident is unfortunate and the negligent nurse should be sacked.”
The nurse was first only sent on leave with an inquiry pending but was later suspended.