Himsagar Mandal. (Prasun Bhattacharya)

Calcutta, June 26: A senior employee of Medical College and Hospital has accused doctors of the same institution of “gross negligence” leaving his left hand useless.

Himsagar Mandal, 51, has been working in the anatomy department of the hospital for around 19 years. His ordeal began last December, when he suddenly felt dizzy and fell 10 feet from the rooftop of his Sonarpur home.

Lying on a bed in the male orthopaedic ward on Thursday, Mandal said: “I underwent surgery five times, but the doctors could not fix my hand. They then discharged me despite my repeated requests to fix my hand before sending me home. I am unable to use my left hand since.”

Mandal was re-admitted on June 20, when he stumbled and hurtled down a flight of stairs while leaving office after work. An X-ray revealed a crack in his left hip joint.

“Somehow, my feet slipped and I could not grab the handrail as it was on my left, and my left hand has been useless since the fall in December,” Mandal said.

The doctors, he said, told him that he would be discharged on Friday. “How can they discharge me like this? I can’t move. I can’t even sit. They are just not taking my case seriously,” Mandal protested, his left arm dangling from the bed and a thick traction covering almost his entire left leg.

Anup Roy, the hospital superintendent and vice-principal of the medical college, said neither Mandal nor his family had lodged a complaint with him yet. But he admitted that the allegation of negligence was a serious one. “Such things cannot happen to anyone in my hospital. I will definitely look into it and talk to the doctors.”

Mandal said he had rented a room near the hospital so that he could join work after two months of rest following the first accident. “I could not have come to the hospital every day all the way from Sonarpur. I could not lie at home either. I am the only earning member of my family. If I don’t work, my family will starve.”

He has a wife, a 22-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter.