Supermarket sushi maker 'takes taxi to hospital' without severed finger tips

An Ealing factory worker making sushi for British supermarkets claimed he was taken to hospital in a taxi, without his missing finger tips, after a gruesome accident.

Viraj Kakadia was trying to restart a machine used to cut peppers at the Taiko Foods factory in Acton when his fingers became trapped.

General trade union GMB claimed he wasn't given the correct protective equipment and because he arrived at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington without the severed tips surgeons could not re-attach them.

"If they sent the fingertips with ice with me to the hospital, I’d still have them intact today," Viraj Kakadia said."They didn’t call an ambulance, and they haven’t offered me any support.

"Myself and my colleagues are standing up and protesting for our rights," he added.

Viraj is back at work but says the finger which lost the most flesh is "still not bending properly" and remains "very painful".

He added: "There is no amount of money for that injury that would solve it.

"I lost my finger. It’s not a question of money. I expect the GMB union to help and ensure this negligence doesn’t happen to anybody else in future."

A spokesperson for Taiko said: "As a national food manufacturing business, Taiko takes its health and safety obligations very seriously. The wellbeing of our colleagues is paramount.

"We provide each employee with thorough training and a full supply of PPE, and we ensure that all machinery is well-maintained and has the correct safety features in place."This was an incident to which the on site team responded swiftly and efficiently, ensuring our colleague reached hospital as quickly as possible.

"Our colleague will be paid in full for his leave of absence and we have reinstated any annual leave he took following this incident."