Five members of a family who attempted to commit suicide by consuming anti-epileptic tablets were admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. While the condition of four of the five is critical, that of one of them is stable.
Niraimadi (35), her daughter Hemalatha(16), Niraimadi’ s sister Suganthi (39) and her daughters Gomati (20) and Sangeeta (15) were brought to at GH at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. According to the hospital authorities, the patients are residents of Veppur village of the Vellore district, and were transferred to GH from Christian Medical College in Vellore. They added that a girl of the same family, who had also ingested the tablets, was now in a stable state in CMC.
“They consumed a few 100 anti-epileptic tablets between them. While four of them are comatose, one is in a drowsy state. There is minimal response from her. But they are all critical,” said the representative of the Poison Control Treatment and Research Centre at GH. The doctors are attempting to stabilise the patients and prevent renal failure.
Though none of the family members could ascertain what the actual cause of suicide was, they speculated it had to do with their rising debts.
“They had been spending a lot on medical expenses lately. Suganthi had suffered snake bite and her husband, Govindaraj, a gas cylinder company employee, spent a lot of money for the treatment at a private nursing home,” said Suganthi’s mother.
