A private hospital in Sonarpur, on the southern fringes of the city, has been asked to pay a compensation of ₹8 lakh to the family of a three-year-old boy for "negligence" in treatment that allegedly caused damage to muscles in one of his hands.

There is still “numbness” in his fingers and there is no guarantee that the hand will be “normal” again, retired judge Ashim Banerjee, the chairperson of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission, said on Thursday.

Reema Ghosh’s son was taken to Atlas Health Point in Sonarpur after he fractured a hand. An orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital put the hand in a “synthetic cast” with local anaesthesia.

“This was done at 7.30pm, after which the child complained of severe pain. He kept crying and could not sleep through the night,” the chairperson said.

“The boy is still undergoing treatment. But no doctor has yet given any guarantee that his hand will be normal again.”

Banerjee said two resident medical officers at the hospital called the orthopaedic surgeon a number of times at night but failed to contact him.

“The child was without treatment for about 24 hours. It was around 4.45pm the next day that the orthopaedic surgeon came and attended to the child,” said Banerjee.

He said the cast was removed. “But the damage had already been done. The muscles had been damaged and they had almost reached the stage of gangrene,” he said.

The boy was taken to Apollo Hospitals in Chennai, where he was operated upon.

“The boy is now better but there is still numbness in his fingers and he is undergoing physiotherapy.... Our expert has said there should have been no cast and the boy should have been treated with conservative management,” he said.

“The fact that the boy did not get treatment for 24 hours was crucial,” the chairperson said.

The attending doctors gave him a compress but the cast should have been removed when the boy was crying inconsolably, he said.

“If the hospital could not get through to the orthopaedic surgeon who had treated the boy, they should have contacted another orthopaedic surgeon.”

Banerjee said the hospital has been asked to pay ₹5 lakh as compensation for negligence and another ₹3 lakh for travel compensation because the family had to take the child to Chennai for treatment.

When contacted, the hospital refused to comment. “We cannot comment since it is a government matter. Our authorities have been told to communicate this to you,” a staff member told The Telegraph.