Boy caught in escalator loses fingers

June 10, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:31 am IST - CHENNAI:

A holiday to Chennai turned tragic for a two-and-a-half-year-old boy from Kolhapur when he lost three fingers on his right hand after being caught in an escalator in Spencer Plaza on Anna Salai.

The child is undergoing surgeries where doctors are trying to fix the severed fingers.

The shocking accident took place around noon on Tuesday when the child Krishik Santosh was taking the escalator from the first floor to the ground floor in the mall with his mother Saranya Pethi and his grandparents.

“I heard loud screams and saw the small boy crying and profusely bleeding from his right hand. His family members were rushing him to the hospital as some mall staff were attempting to retrieve the severed fingers,” recalled the salesman at a garment showroom close to the accident spot. Mall employees were seen dismantling the entire equipment including the downward iron ribbon into which the boy’s finger had reportedly got caught after he tripped and fell. “Following an hour-long search, the three fingers were found and rushed to hospital in an icebox,” added a mall security personnel.

How young Krishik’s hand got caught in the moving escalator is unclear and whether the equipment at the mall was faulty is likely to be probed by the police.

The boy was initially taken to the Government Royapettah Hospital and then to the Government Stanley Hospital. Doctors at Stanley Hospital said the family arrived with the child and his three fingers in a box filled with ice. “However, a little while after coming in, they decided to seek a second opinion and left,” a doctor at Stanley said.

Around 3 p.m., the family arrived at Right Hospitals in Kilpauk. G. Balakrishnan, medical director and consultant plastic surgeon said the child was immediately taken in for surgery. “Three fingers — the index, middle and ring finger — were completely detached. The surgery will take a few more hours, possibly until midnight,” he said.

Ms. Saranya Pethi told The Hindu they could speak only after the procedure.

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