The hospital has been home for 48-year-old Gopal Patra for the past 12 years. Gopal Patra at a pandal with the junior doctors of RG Kar Medical College
Kolkata: The hospital has been home for 48-year-old Gopal Patra for the past 12 years. Abandoned by family and bedridden, Patra has not stepped out of his ward in RG Kar Medical College & Hospital (RGKMCH) for 12 years. But this Durga puja , a group of junior doctors took him to a Durga puja pandal, ending his 12-year cut-off from the rest of the world. Sources in the hospital said that Patra was a widower as he lost his wife in 1993 and the couple had no children. “This single day of joy after 12 years of hospital confinement might not erase all his pain.
He lost both his legs in the accident as doctors at RGKMCH had to amputate them from below the knees to save his life.
But even if it was for a single-day outing we tried our best to make him see to make him feel the festive vibe,” said Trinesh Mondal. His left arm also suffered severe muscle contracture. Even as Patra survived the injury and recovered after several months, no family person came back to the hospital to take him home. After the accident, his two nephews visited him once or twice, but the visits stopped. Since nobody came to take him back home, the hospital administration made him stay in the casualty block observation ward. This ward was later shifted from the emergency building to the surgery building; he found a permanent home there. This puja, junior doctors Trinesh Mondal, Gairik Roy, and Shruti Singh—postgraduate trainee (PGT) doctors in general surgery—decided to take him to a puja pandal nearby. On Maha Asthami, the trio were on OPD duty where patient load was very light. Taking the opportunity, they roped in hospital staff member Gautam to take Patra out to visit a pandal in a wheelchair.