Hand in jaws of dog: KGMU to fix responsibility, take action against negligent staff

Negligence by KGMU staff led to a stray dog carrying a severed hand on campus. The hand belonged to Sumit Kumar, severed in an accident. Staff facing action.

Sheer negligence by staff resulted in a gory scene playing out in full public view on the King George’s Medical University campus on March 15, where a stray dog loitered around the campus with a human hand held in its jaws.

A dog carries a human hand in its mouth, on the KGMU campus, on Friday. (HT Photo)

“The name ‘Sumit Kumar’ was written on the severed hand which helped us trace who the hand belonged to and where it came from. Sumit Kumar is a native of Hardoi and his hand was severed in a saw machine following which the family rushed him to KGMU,” said Dr Sudhir Singh, spokesperson, KGMU on March 16.

At the emergency ward, he was attended to by doctors from the plastic surgery department, but unfortunately, they found the hand could not be rejoined. “The patient was on a stretcher and his hand was tied to the stretcher by the family. The condition of the severed body part was such that it could not be rejoined,” said Dr Singh.

Later, both the hand and stretcher went missing from the emergency wing of the plastic surgery department at the trauma centre.

KGMU authorities decided to fix responsibility and act against all negligent staff members for this incident. “Usually, such a body part is returned to the family/patient with paperwork. The staff was negligent as it was their responsibility to take the body part, keep it as per protocol and then hand it over to the patient. This was not followed and hence the negligent staff will face action,” said Dr Singh.