A middle-aged cardiac patient who fell off his bed at SSKM Hospital and suffered multiple injuries was allegedly left unattended on the floor amid blood for an hour till his son came and lifted him up on Sunday morning.

The reason for the alleged negligence: Deb Kumar Mukherjee, 57, was a “Covid-19 suspect”.

Mukherjee, who had been admitted to the ICU of the cardiology department, was shifted to a general ward on Thursday after another patient in the ICU tested positive for Covid-19 and the unit had to be vacated for sanitisation.

Since then, his only son Jeet, who works at a private company, has been his lone attendant in the hospital because “no employee in the general ward will touch him”, the family said.

On Sunday morning, Jeet received a call shortly after he had left the hospital to freshen up – the only time of the day he takes a break from his father’s bedside – asking him to return to lift his father to the bed.

“The nurse who had called scolded me for leaving the hospital. She said the patient had fallen and they were not going to lift him to the bed,” said Jeet, a resident of Behala.

He rushed back to the ward and found his father still sitting on the floor, bleeding from his head, elbow and nose. Around an hour had passed since the nurse had called him up.

SSKM medical superintendent Raghunath Mishra said: “This should not have happened. I will check and take action if the allegations are true.”

Hospital staff later attended to his injuries.

Krishna Sau, 64, another heart patient who was shifted to the general ward the same day, recounted to Metro over the phone how Mukherjee was “crying like a baby” after falling off the bed.

Sau, too, said he had only his two sons to take care of him at the hospital.

A doctor at SSKM said they had planned to place each ward under the supervision of “one medical staff or attendant” who will take care of the patients wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).

Family members of Sau and Mukherjee said a PPE-clad employee would visit the ward thrice a day to distribute medicines. He allegedly hands over the medicines to relatives at the entrance of the ward.

The doctor added: “Given their limited knowledge…. handling a Covid-19 patient is a stigma for Group D staff.”

Jeet said he paid a woman at SSKM Rs 200 daily to take care of his father. “Still I would get calls at 3 in the morning asking me to clean my father’s stool,” he said.