Hospitals in Chandigarh record 141 patients with cracker injuries

Addressing the media on Friday afternoon, doctors from PGI’s Advance Eye Centre said that till late afternoon, a total of 37 patients with firecracker-related injuries availed the emergency services of Advanced Eye Centre. The youngest patient was 7-year-old boy Rachit from Kharar, who suffered injury to his right eye. “The majority of the injured ones are bystanders, which means they were not bursting crackers,” said PGI director Dr Jagat Ram, also a senior ophthalmologist at the institute. “Eleven patients were actually lighting the crackers when they got injured and 26 were bystanders.”

Dr M R Dogra, head, Advanced Eye Centre, PGI, said that a total of 13 patients required surgical intervention to salvage the eye, 10 of whom had undergone surgery. He said that 22 patients had suffered serious eye injuries and were with “worse visual activity”.

PGI doctors said that out of 37 patients, 16 were from the Tricity area while 21 were from the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. “There were 29 men and eight women. Nineteen patients were below 16 years of age and five patients were above 40 years of age,” said Professor A K Jain, another senior doctor from the eye department. Doctors also said that the ENT specialist informed them that a huge noise of crackers was becoming a leading reason for deafness among those who burst crackers.

The PGI also recorded 17 patients with burn injuries and they were being treated by the department of plastic surgery. Dr Jagat Ram said that this year the number of patients was more. “We were expecting less numbers due to the limited time announced by the high court on bursting crackers. But it didn’t happen and the number is more than what we saw on the first day after Diwali. We again reiterate that there should be a complete ban on the firecrackers and the government should announce some designated places where this cracker-bursting can take place,” he said.

The family members of the victims have demanded a ban on the cracker sale. “We burst some crackers and then we returned home. Suddenly my son went outside again and later we found that his eye was bleeding,” said Nitin Popli, father of Rachit. “I don’t want the same to happen to any other child. Let government completely ban the crackers.”

At the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, the UT health department said that they received 39 cases of minor burn injuries while there were two burn injury cases as well. In Manimajra hospital, civil hospital, Sector 22 and Sector 45, the health department put the total number of minor burn and eye burn injuries at 29.

UT health director Dr Rakesh Kashyap said that less number of patients in UT health department-run hospitals indicates “positive change this time”. “Due to the very limited bursting of crackers by people of Tricity, there was a visible positive effect on the number of Diwali-related emergency cases received in our government hospitals this year,” he said.

Officials at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) said the hospital recorded 11 cases with burn and eye injuries due to crackers. “All of them have been discharged as they were minor,” said an official.