Tragic scenes witnessed at GGH

May 11, 2013 02:29 pm | Updated August 02, 2016 04:48 pm IST - GUNTUR:

Family members of Abhishek seen wailing at Government General Hospital in Guntur on Friday. T. Vijaya Kumar.

Family members of Abhishek seen wailing at Government General Hospital in Guntur on Friday. T. Vijaya Kumar.

Tragic scenes were witnessed at the Government General Hospital casualty ward where the body of 13-year-old Abhishek was kept.

Eldest of the two siblings, Abhishek was drowned while he was swimming at the GMC swimming pool at Syamala Nagar on Friday evening.

Deputy Commissioner of GMC Abdul Latif said that the boy had gone into the deep-end of the pool, usually used by more experienced swimmers. Another version was that the boy was resuscitated for a while after being drowned, but died on the way to hospital. Cause of his death would be known only after the post-mortem was completed.

The boy’s father Krishna, and mother Venkata Ramana are advocates, and the family resides at AT Agraharam.

“My son loves swimming, and he along with his younger brother, go there every evening. This evening, he went alone to the pool. I received a phone call at about 7 p.m. and I rushed to the pool only to find the gate closed. We were made to go to various hospitals in search of our son, but finally we found him here,” said Krishna, weeping inconsolably over the loss of his son. The incident had once again raised disturbing questions over the lack of safety at the swimming pool.

The pool is manned by a lone coach, assisted by two helpers. None of them are on regular pay, and are recruited on outsourcing basis. In summer, the pool usually bristles with boys and girls. This year, about 200 boys and girls have enrolled for the camp, making it almost impossible for the lone coach to handle the children. In addition to the camp, regular members also use the pool in summer.

The GMC has also failed to provide lifeguards.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.