In a scene straight out of some horror film, a stray dog was seen carrying a severed human hand in its mouth in Lucknow’s King George Medical University, leaving doctors, patients and staff stunned, the website News18.com reported.
The incident has shone the spotlight once again on the state of India’s government-run hospitals, many of which fail to meet basic hygiene norms. Pramod Gupta, an attendant who first spotted the dog, told the website, “It was a shocking scene and caused panic. Some people ran away while others started clicking pictures.”
Some onlookers mustered the courage to shoo the dog away. As the animal fled, the hand fell from its grasp. But no one bothered to collect the hand and moments later the dog reappeared to pick it up. It was only when someone posted the horrific sight on social media and the video began to go viral that the hospital management acted.
The website reported that the limb belonged to a man whose hand had been caught in a wood-cutting machine. According to a spokesperson for the hospital, the patient had tied the severed hand to his stretcher while consulting the doctor about reattaching it. As the limb was in a bad state, doctors said reattachment was not possible. The spokesperson claimed the patient forgot the limb tied to the stretcher, which the dog then tried to make off with.
