A team of seven doctors here is battling to save the highly-infectious broken arm of a 12-year-old boy, who was allegedly beaten by the owner of brick kiln in Gulbarga district of Karnataka where he worked along with his parents.
The doctors in the team have been drawn from the orthopaedic and plastic surgery departments of SCB Medical College and Hospital here.
Susant of Patnagarh block in Bolangir district, a migrant labourer, had sustained severe injuries in his left arm after he was hit with an iron rod by the brick kiln owner in November last year. The Odisha government rescued the boy last week and has decided to bear the entire cost of his treatment.
Meanwhile, the State Labour Commissioner is contemplating to approach his Karnataka counterpart to initiate criminal proceedings against the brick kiln owner and seek adequate compensation from him for the boy and his family members.
Susant was shifted here on Saturday when doctors of government hospital in Bolangir district and Burla-based VSS Medical College and Hospital expressed their inability to treat such a critical case.
Referring the boy to the Cuttack teaching hospital, Burla doctors had observed that he needed special care and treatment to make his arm functional again.
"We received the patient in a highly critical condition as the injuries in his broken arm were left unattended and untreated for nearly two months. The broken bones have been infected and the arm is dysfunctional due to lack of proper blood circulation to it," said SCB Hospital Administrative Officer Dr B N Moharana.
Experts drawn from orthopaedic and plastic surgery departments of the hospital are examining the case, Moharana said, adding that a series of corrective surgeries were required to make the boy's injured arm functional.
