A young Briton with hypertension bled from the nose and slipped in and out of consciousness at Calcutta airport as officials of the international airline he had flown with and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) wasted time arguing whose responsibility it was to take him to hospital.

Allan Roddy arrived at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport on a Biman Bangladesh flight around 9pm on Saturday.

The 33-year-old was in the queue for immigration clearance when he let out a scream and fainted.

Other passengers lifted him and put him on a sofa, where he lay for more than an hour as representatives of the airline and the AAI staff played pass-the-buck.

It wasn’t until around 10.30pm that the doctor on duty at the international terminal, the airport manager and immigration officials carried Roddy on a stretcher to the ambulance that took him to Apollo Gleneagles Hospital.

One of the doctors treating him said on Sunday that his condition was “serious but stable”.

Biman Bangladesh maintained that it was the AAI’s responsibility to look after the patient. “Once a passenger has disembarked and entered the terminal, it is the responsibility of that airport to look after him,” an official of the airline said.

Officials of the AAI contested the claim.

“The rule is that the airline must look after the passenger and his/her baggage. Since Roddy had not cleared immigration, the airline should have assisted him in completing the formalities and accompanied him to hospital. We only provide initial treatment and arrange for an ambulance,” one of them said.

No wonder Roddy, when he came to, mumbled to the arguing officials that they should inform the UK embassy about his condition.

“He had very high blood pressure, which was causing the bleeding. He needed to be put into an ICU,” said the doctor who first examined him.

One of the immigration officials said Roddy was “speaking incoherently” after gaining consciousness for a while.

Basab Talukdar, the deputy commissioner (security control) and foreigners’ regional registration officer, criticised both the airline and the AAI for not taking responsibility. “It was only after immigration officials put pressure that the AAI ambulance was called in to take him to a hospital,” he said.

The airline representatives and AAI officials allegedly continued bickering even after the ambulance arrived. “None of them volunteered to carry the passenger on a stretcher to the ambulance,” an immigration officer said.