Boy eye lost, doc neglect blame - Bamboo piece stuck in eye despite surgery, says family

Rupan Roy. (Kundan Yolmo)

Mrinalini Sharma, TT, Siliguri, May. 5: A Siliguri-based legal welfare organisation has filed a complaint with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights saying negligence by some doctors of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital allegedly led to the loss of vision in a four-year-old boy’s left eye.

The Darjeeling District Legal Aid Forum filed the complaint with the commission on April 27, asking the panel to register a case against the doctors and order compensation for Rupan Roy.

Rupan’s parents said the boy had got hit over his left eye with a bamboo pole while playing with friends on January 3.

“A neighbour told me she had seen another boy hitting my son in the left eye with a bamboo stick. Rupan was not able to open his eye and it would keep watering. I took him to the medical college and after examining him, doctors told me that there was a tear in his left eye which needed to be stitched,” said Rumpa Roy, the boy’s mother.

“The operation was conducted the next day. But the condition of my son’s left eye did not improve and he complained of severe pain and poor sight.”

Rumpa, a house help, and her husband Ranjit, a vegetable vendor, live at South Colony in New Jalpaiguri.

The doctors told Rupan’s parents that another operation was needed and it was conducted a week later. “But even after the second surgery, the problems persisted. When we asked about it, the doctors told us that the condition of my son’s eye had not improved and they doubted he would ever be able to see with the damaged eye again. He was discharged from NBMCH on January 15,” Rumpa said.

The couple took Rupan to Biratnagar Eye Hospital in eastern Nepal on April 8.

“In the first examination itself, the doctor in Biratnagar told us that a bamboo sliver was stuck in the left eye. They said severe infection had rendered his left eye blind and it should be removed to prevent the infection from spreading,” Ranjit said.

Medical documents of the boy provided by Biratnagar Eye Hospital read that an evisceration — removal of the iris and pupil — in Rupan’s left eye was conducted on April 10 and that a foreign body measuring half-an-inch was removed from the left eye.

The issue was brought to the notice of the legal aid forum that filed the complaint with the child rights commission.

“The child had a bamboo sliver stuck in his eye. But doctors at NBMCH instead of removing it stitched the eye saying it had a tear. This damaged his eye. This is sheer negligence on the part of doctors and they deserve punishment. A complaint has been lodged with NBMCH superintendent also,” said Amit Sarkar, the secretary of the forum.

However, the complaints didn’t mention the names of NBMCH doctors who performed the surgeries on Rupan.

Amarendranath Sarkar, the superintendent of NBMCH, said an inquiry would start only if instructions came from an authorised body.

“I have received the complaint but we cannot start an inquiry as and when a social organisation demands it. We shall start a probe only after receiving instructions from an authorised body like the child rights panel,” he said.