Mamata visits baby whose thumb was cut by nurse

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday visited the baby girl whose thumb was cut allegedly by a nurse in a state-run hospital.

Banerjee hoped that the baby, now under treatment at the premier SSKM hospital, would be cured soon.

"It is not right that the baby cannot be cured. We hope she will get well soon and we will get a positive news soon," she said.

The baby, admitted to the Balurghat General Hospital on July 10 with diarrhoea, met with the tragic incident two days later when the nurse -- in an attempt to cut a leucoplast to remove the channel made for administering saline -- allegedly severed the thumb with scissors.

Later that night, the child's mother Mamoni Mondal saw that the thumb was missing, and the baby's father found the finger in the hospital 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 no one came forward," Babla Mondal said.

The baby patient was later shifted to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri in Darjeeling district on the advice of the Balurghat hospital's superintendent.

But it was brought back to Balurghat after the NBMCH authorities said they did not have the infrastructure to set right the thumb.

Later, the baby girl was brought to SSKM.

The nurse has been placed under suspension while the government has announced it would bear all expenses for the child's treatment.