West Bengal: Nurse severs infant's thumb, tries to cover up incident

A nurse has allegedly severed a thumb of an eight-day-old baby while trying to remove a bandage in a government hospital here in South Dinajpur district.

The infant was admitted to the Sick and Neonatal Care Unit (SNCU) in the District Hospital in Balurghat with diarrhoea on July 6, Chief Medical Officer of Health Sukumar De said. The baby's left palm was covered with bandage to administer saline. After the child's condition improved, a nurse was removing the bandage last night. However, while doing so, she allegedly severed the baby's thumb and then dumped it in a dustbin. The infant's father Babla Mondal raised a hue and cry after knowing what had happened. He also recovered the severed thumb from the dustbin.

Doctors sent the baby to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) in Siliguri to get the severed thumb rejoined, De said. But the NBMCH did not have infrastructure to treat such a patient and sent him back to the Balurghat hospital. So the child has been admitted there again.

The CMOH said he has ordered an investigation and the accused nurse has been sent for five-day leave. "We are looking into the allegation levelled by the parents and if the nurse is found guilty, we will take proper action,” said hospital superintendent Tapan Biswas. The child's father has also lodged a complaint with the police over the incident.

(With inputs from Pooja Mehta)