Indian expat loses limbs after accident at work in UAE, seeks govt support

Dubai: An Indian expatriate is facing a grim future in the UAE after he lost both his hands and legs to an infection caused after an accident during work for a private company.

Gurbinder Singh, 42, from Punjab, has been working as a crane operator for the company since 2013. On February 24, Singh injured his left knee at the company site on Zirku Island, some 140 km off the capital Abu Dhabi. He was first treated at the company's on-site clinic where the next day he developed the infection and fell unconscious. On February 26, he was airlifted to the super-specialty Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi, Khaleej Times reported.

"I was working at the site from February 14. I injured my left knee while climbing a crane. At Mafraq Hospital, I was kept in the intensive care unit. My kidney had failed and blood pressure dipped. I was 99 per cent dead and was given heavy dosage of medicine to stay alive," Singh said.

"But by the first week of March, my hands and legs turned black. By the second week of April, doctors told me that amputation was needed to save my life. I don't know how all this happened from a small injury," he added. According to a medical report from the hospital, Singh was diagnosed with septic shock (a serious medical condition following an infection) and severe left knee necrotising cellulitis (bacterial infection), which required surgical removal of foreign material and dead tissue from injury to prevent the infection from spreading. "He developed dry gangrene on both hands and legs. He was reviewed by plastic and vascular surgeons, and they advised amputation," Dr Haytham Taha of the Mafraq Hospital said.