A six-year-old boy with a ruptured cornea was allegedly refused by three anaesthetists in and around the city last week.
A doctor at an ophthalmology hospital in Dankuni, Hooghly, was finally able to operate on the boy on Friday.
“I called three anaesthetists because the boy would need general anaesthesia for the surgery. But all of them refused because of the Covid-19 situation,” said Tanushree Chakraborty, one of the directors at Drishtideep Eye Institute in Dankuni, who along with another surgeon performed the surgery.
Chakraborty said the boy was at risk of losing vision in his left eye if the surgery was not conducted in time.
Anideep Mondal, 6, was flying a kite at his Burdwan home on May 13 afternoon when he hurt his eye.
“He was trying to pull the kite string and one of the sharp edges of the broomstick hit his left eye,” said the boy’s father Ashit, who runs a mobile recharge store in Burdwan.
Anideep was taken to a local ophthalmologist, who examined the boy and said the cornea of his left eye was damaged and needed surgery.
“The doctor referred us to the Dankuni hospital,” said the father.
The father and son travelled around 80km on May 14 to reach Dankuni.
“The vision in the boy’s left eye had deteriorated by the time he came to our hospital. It had dropped to only perception of light,” Chakraborty said.
“The boy was in danger of losing his vision if the surgery was not done quickly. When I saw the anaesthetists were reluctant, I called up a couple of eye hospitals in Calcutta to ask whether they would do the surgery. But they also refused because doctors were not available,” Chakraborty said.
The doctor finally requested anaesthetist Supratim Banerjee, explaining the emergency, and he finally agreed.
“As doctors, we have to take the risk of performing surgeries. It’s true that in an eye surgery, a doctor has to be very close to the patient. But we wear personal protective equipment that minimises the risk of infection,” said Chakraborty.
Procedures that generate artificial aerosols, including general anaesthesia, are high- risk for healthcare personnel, who can contract Covid-19 if the patient is infected. But such procedures are being carried out across the world taking preventive measures such as wearing PPE.
“The doctors at the hospital told us there was a delay in surgery because they were not getting an anaesthetist. But we didn’t know where to go and requested them to somehow arrange for a doctor,” said Anideep’s father.
Metro has published several reports on how some doctors have been reluctant to treat patients because of the Covid-19 pandemic.