KOLKATA: Pintu Chakraborty was in for a shock when he dropped in at Shambhunath Pundit Hospital on Monday morning. He had come to check on mother Gouri, 55, who had slipped into a coma after undergoing cornea surgery after being admitted on Nov 5.

He found ants “eating into” her left eye, which was bleeding profusely. The nurse blamed the sweeper, claiming he had let insects into the wards. It was left to Pintu to clean up the wound, apply medicine and bandage the eye. Welfare officer Samir Roy admitted negligence on the hospital’s part but asked the family not to raise a hue and cry. “But we lodged a complaint with Bhowanipore police station,” Pintu said.

Though a colleague of Pintu’s father surmised that the insects could have been drawn to an ointment applied on the eye, hospital in-charge Subrata Adhikary said, “It’s hard to say if ants caused the wounds.” He promised an inquiry, as did director, health services, Prabhakar Chatterjee. However, in the evening, the family was asked to move Gouri to SSKM.—Dawn/Times of India News Service