May 1 was meant to be a lean day for Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH) but, just as these things sometime go, doctors had to get into the act, as persons injured in the bomb blasts at Chennai Central railway station were wheeled into the casualty wards from 7.30 a.m.
Fourteen persons, including a woman and two teenagers, had sustained various degrees of injuries in the blast and were rushed to the hospital. Most of them had injuries on their lower limbs.
Officials at GH said the injured were: Shariful Haque (27), Saren Barman (31) and Bimal Kumar Das (43) of Jalpaiguri, West Bengal; G. Anjaneyalu (29) and Murali Loknath (21) of Andhra Pradesh; G. Hari (21) and Jitendra Mohanta Deka (51) of Bangalore, Karnataka; Sadan Chandra Debnath (64) and Sumant Debnath (37) of north Tripura; Bijan Kumar (14) and Altaf Khan (17) of Manipur; Umari Hani (45) of Assam; and Sagun Kumar Rai (23) and Krishna (28) of West Bengal.
Of this, two persons — Sumant Debnath and Krishna — underwent major surgeries. Doctors said Mr. Debnath had sustained fractures in his leg and feet and the bones were exposed. The bones were externally fixed in surgery.
Mr. Krishna had suffered an injury in the carotid artery (the main blood vessel in the neck), caused by a nail that had pierced it, as well as lacerations on his leg. Mr. Anjaneyalu, who was close to the site of explosion, had sustained injuries on his thighs, and underwent surgery. Four other persons underwent surgeries, including for minor fractures, while others sustained minor injuries such as abrasions, according to doctors.
As the trauma and emergency surgical ward swelled with people, particularly mediapersons, security guards and police personnel struggled to manage the crowd. Soon, the ward was cordoned off, including for the media.
A number of patients, who were already admitted to the ward, were either discharged or shifted to other wards to make more space for the blasts victims. The hospital authorities said this was one of the biggest cases handled bythe hospital in the last five years, after two train accidents at Arakkonam in Vellore district in 2011 and 2013.
“But we were able to manage the emergency situation. Initially, we had a few problems with managing the crowd but everything was brought under control. Doctors from various specialties were brought together to treat the injured immediately,” said an official.
