Dr Paribaha Mukhopadhyay, who had received a skull injury when a violent mob unleashed an attack on the NRS Hospital in Kolkata, has been released from the Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata (INK) where he was being treated.
As per a report in The Times of India, Dr Paribaha Mukhopadhyay was released from the INK on Wednesday after weeks of treatment. Following the skull injury in the vicious attack, Dr Mukherjee had to undergo surgery on the cranium on June 11. He was injured when a mob of over 200 people had attacked the hospital after the death of one Mohammad Sayeed, a 75-year-old who had died after a cardiac stroke.
Paribaha had a dent in his skull which had to be treated by surgery. The surgery involved the elevation of the depressed fracture and debridement of the wound.
Paribaha will need another surgery, a cranioplasty, in about 2/3 months. For now, he has been advised rest. The hospital report states that he had developed some sores on his tongue and had been complaining of a ‘heaviness’ in his head. He has been advised rest for 2 weeks following which he will be fit to join work.
Dr Hrishikesh Kumar, the surgeon who led the team of 5 doctors who operated on Paribaha, has stated that during Paribaha’s surgery, some small fragments of bone had come out when the depression was being elevated. The fragments have left tiny holes which have to be filled during the next cranioplasty procedure. The next procedure will involve filling the gaps with titanium.
Dr Kumar has also stated that Mukherjee’s surgery was a long and complicated procedure but luckily he had not suffered any damage to the brain.
The attack on the NRS Hospital and the Bengal police’s lack of action over the violent mob had led to nationwide protests by doctors who had demanded that the government must ensure the safety of doctors. In West Bengal alone, reportedly, there have been hundreds of attacks over doctors and medical staff in the last few years. The apathy of the TMC government and its appeasement politics were severely criticised by doctors in the state.
Almost all major hospitals and medical colleges had joined the protests against the Mamata government. The protests were only halted after CM Mamata Banerjee visited the doctors personally and assured safety and security at hospitals.
