TRICHY: A staff nurse of a Thanjavur hospital accidentally cut off a portion of the thumb of a newborn while removing the paediatric venflon (cannula) from its hand on Monday.
The incident happened at the Government Raja Mirasdar Hospital in Thanjavur when the 14-day-old premature girl was being discharged from the hospital.
Born to Priyadarshini, 20, of Katoor village at the hospital on May 25, the baby had congenital anomalies and was kept off breast feed by doctors and put on intravenous support.
A venflon was placed on her left thumb and wrapped with surgical tape to inject fluids.
Since she was recuperating well, doctors decided to discharge her on Monday.
A nurse who attempted to remove the venflon from her finger eventually cut a portion of her thumb.
On finding blood oozing from the baby’s finger, Priyadarshini raised an alarm.
The nurse called the doctors and informed them about the incident.
Thanjavur medical college hospital dean G Ravikumar, who is in charge of the hospital, told TOI that a paediatric surgeon carried out a small procedure to suture the finger soon after the incident.
Terming it an accident as the nurse was one of the seniormost in the paediatric ward, the dean said the baby seems to have shaken its hand when the nurse was attempting to remove the plaster around the venflon using a scissor.
The dean said an inquiry has been ordered and action will be taken if the nurse was found guilty.
He said the venflon is removed before discharging any patient.
Before the procedure is done on babies, the hand is tied to a scale to make it immobile.
Despite all precautionary measures, the incident happened, said the dean.
Meanwhile, the baby’s father Ganesan has sought action against the nurse and proper update about the health condition of the baby.
“No other baby should undergo such pain,” he said.