Darjeeling District Hospital

Darjeeling, Aug 13: A doctor of Darjeeling District Hospital, who has been accused of leaving cotton wool inside a patient following a curettage wash-up of the uterus, today surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate after police started a case of negligence.

Dr N.K. Gorai has been granted bail.

The husband of the patient, Prerna Gurung, today filed an FIR with the Darjeeling Sadar police station. “We have started a case under Section 338 of the IPC after receiving the complaint,” said a police official. Section 338 deals with negligence (causing grievous hurt by an act, which endangers the human life) and is bailable.

“The judge granted bail on a surety and a bail bond of Rs 300. The next date of hearing has been fixed on August 27,” said Roshan Pariyar, the defence lawyer.

Sandu Gurung, Prerna’s husband, had accused the doctor of leaving cotton wool inside her body following the curettage wash-up on August 8. Although Prerna was discharged the next day, she complained of pain following which she was admitted to the Army Hospital in Lebong where the cotton wool were allegedly removed on August 11.

Gorai today said he had “intentionally” kept the cotton wool inside to stop the bleeding. “The next day, she appeared to have recovered well. Moreover, since the ward was crammed and also because some cracks had appeared on the building there was commotion all around. However, even in the confusion I think I had told them (patient and her family members) that the cotton wool had to be removed after 48 hours,” said Gorai.

“The patient should have come back to me if she had any problem,” the doctor said.

Sandu, however, said no one had informed him that the cotton had to be removed. “The day after the wash-up, the doctor came for a check-up and he told us that the patient would be discharged. We were not told that some cotton wool had been left behind and that it had to be removed,” he said. He added that he had learnt from other doctors that had the cotton wool remained there for long, it could have started a life threatening infection.

A senior gynaecologist had yesterday said leaving cotton wool was a practised option and that it was “definitely not life threatening”.