Various city hospitals registered cases pertaining to firecracker-related burns and eye injuries on Deepavali and the following day. Doctors said the numbers were nothing out of the ordinary when compared to previous years.
J. Jaganmohan, head, Department of Burns, Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, said the department received 13 persons with burns on Deepavali. Of this, 10 were treated as out patients (OP) for simple burn injuries and three have been admitted. On Sunday, six patients — three children and three adults — underwent treatment in the OP ward.
“We usually see 10 to 15 patients with firecracker-related burns every year. This year too, people came with injuries on their face, hands and legs. Two boys — aged 12 years — who came with hand injuries and a 21-year-old youth with leg injuries have been admitted for treatment,” he said. The boys sustained burns on their fingers after they had burst the crackers while holding them, he added.
“The finger tips are swollen. We have to wait for the swelling to subside and decide on surgery. The youth sustained burns on his legs after a cracker fell on him and his clothes caught fire. He has sustained deep second degree burns,” he said.
Dr. Jaganmohan said the department received 10 cases on Deepavali last year.
Cases of eye injuries were also reported at several eye hospitals including the Government Ophthalmic Hospital, Egmore. Sankara Nethralaya received 22 cases of eye injuries on Deepavali and seven patients on Sunday.
Amar Agarwal, chairman and managing director of Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals, said some of the patients reported foreign bodies in the eyes. “When the cracker bursts, the iron particles enter the eyes. There are also cases of eye burns,” he said.
The 108 ambulance’s emergency response centre saw an increase in the number of emergency calls since November 1. “We received more than 3,000 emergency calls on the day. On Deepavali, we received over 4,000 calls. We will analyse the calls to indicate the type of emergencies. Last Deepavali, we attended to 2,566 cases across the State and this included road traffic accidents, assaults and burns,” said B. Prabhudoss, regional manager, GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute.
