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| Keka Mitra. Picture by Pradip Sanyal |
A young woman has moved the state consumer disputes commission alleging that a faulty surgery by a city doctor 14 years ago caused nerve damage that paralysed and deformed the right side of her face.
Keka Mitra discovered after a dental surgery in 1995 — when she was only 12 years old — that seven of her teeth were missing. Within days the right side of her face was so bloated that she could not close her right eye even for sleeping. The swelling got worse with time, distorting her face further.
Amit Roy (senior), the surgeon, allegedly maintained for six years that physiotherapy and chewing hard food would cure her before barring Keka and her parents from his chamber.
When Keka went for a second opinion in 2001, she was told that she had suffered “facial nerve palsy following the surgery”. In simple terms, the right side of her face was paralysed since 1995.
The girl was operated for neurofibroma, a benign nerve sheath tumour in the peripheral nervous system. The tumour was at the base of her teeth.
“Amit Roy (senior) had not told us that the surgery might damage a nerve or even that he would remove seven teeth. If he did, we would not have gone for the surgery. It has ruined my daughter’s social life,” said Keka’s mother Kalpana, a homemaker.
“Whenever we asked why it was taking so long for the swelling to subside, Dr Roy would be rude and mouth obscenities,” alleged the mother.
She and her husband have taken Keka to many reputable dental institutions, including Vellore, but the doctors said the condition was irreversible.
With all hope lost and Roy allegedly avoiding the family, Kalpana lodged a complaint with police on April 29 this year. She lodged a complaint with the West Bengal Dental Council seven days later.
An official of the state dental council said they had received the complaint and would hold a meeting soon to discuss the case.
Kalpana lodged a fresh police complaint on May 16 after she received an alleged threat from Roy on her landline phone.
The family moved the West Bengal Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission recently.
Paresh Chakraborty, a doctor who checked Keka at SSKM Hospital on May 12 this year, advised social rehabilitation along with a visit to physical medicine specialist, a neurologist and a plastic surgeon.
“She was a normal, happy child. After the surgery, the other kids at her school started teasing her about her looks. She had to face the same in college. Despite that she managed to graduate and now works in a BPO,” said Kalpana.
Keka loves to sing but can’t go on for long because of her condition. Though her speech has not been affected by paralysis, she faces problems working long hours,” said Kalpana.
When contacted by Metro, Roy said he could not remember seeing the patient in the past eight to 10 years and did not remember details of the case.