Hospitals report cases of burn, eye injuries on Diwali

New Delhi: Over 250 cases of burn injuries were reported by various hospitals in the national Capital this Diwali. The five government hospitals - Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML), Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB), Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) and Lok Nayak (LN), reported majority of the burn injuries and firecracker-related accidents.

The Centre-run Safdarjung hospital, which has largest burns unit in the country, received around 104 cases, including 22 admissions related to major burn injuries, from 9 am on Wednesday to 9 am on Thursday.

"While 22 patients were admitted, rest were treated as out patients," said Dr Shalabh Kumar, Professor and Consultant, Plastic Surgery Department, Safdarjung Hospital. Of the total 104 patients, 26 were children.

At the RML Hospital, located in central Delhi, 25 people came to the casualty wards with burn injuries, out of whom, six patients had to be admitted as they had more than 20 percent burns, said Dr VK Tiwari, Medical Superintendent of the hospital.

The Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at the AIIMS also received patients who had sustained burns in eyes or other ocular injuries during Diwali festivities. Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the Lok Nayak hospital, Dr PS Bhandari, said, "21 persons with burn injuries were attended to at our hospital, out of which five were admitted."

"This year we had anticipated that the cases will go down on Diwali as lot of efforts have been made to sensitise the public. But then people started pouring in since last evening and continued till Thursday morning," Bhandari added.

Around 35 patients were sent back home after first aid at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. The Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital received 45 patients for bodily injuries from fire-related incidents and saw two admissions this Diwali.