Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wants Nurse Who Cut Child's Thumb to be Sacked

In a shocking incident, a nurse at Balurghat General Hospital severed a eight-day-old baby girl's thumb with the scissors, in an attempt to cut a leucoplast to remove the channel made for administering saline. The baby was admitted to the state-run hospital on Friday with diarrhea. Taking a strong stand against this tragic incident, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the nurse who cut off the baby's thumb deserves to be sacked as she had no right to continue in her job. Around 10.30 pm the child's mother Mamoni Mondal saw blood oozing out from the affected area and found the thumb was missing. She called her husband, Babla Mondal, who confronted the hospital nurse. Babla Mondal said, "But she said she had no idea about the finger. I looked everywhere and finally found the thumb from the dustbin. Helpless, with the finger in one hand and my child in the other, I began pleading with the doctors to attend to my child. But none came forward."

Banerjee said, "The law needed to be amended, if required, to mete out summary punishment to those committing such acts of negligence. Why wasn't she (the nurse) more careful in treating the child? The thumb got severed when she tried to cut the bandage. What is this? Sheer nonsense!"

Dubbing such negligence as a 'big crime', Banerjee said, "This can never be tolerated. I feel those committing such acts, should lose their jobs immediately." With the state health department placing the nurse under suspension, Banerjee said, "It is okay that she has been suspended. But after what she has done, she has no right to continue in her job. Negligence is a big crime. If there are no laws as such, the law needs to be amended (to mete out summary punishment)."

After an hour, hospital superintendent Tapan Biswas asked the parents to take the child to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri of Darjeeling district. But that was not the end of their ordeal. Mamoni Mondal said, "At NBMCH, the doctors told us that it would be meaningless to admit our baby there as it did not have the infrastructure to do a plastic surgery on the child." The baby was brought back to the Balurghat district hospital, and has now been shifted to the SSKM where the doctors performed the plastic surgery on the child.

The state government has announced it will bear all expenses for the child's treatment.

Source-IANS