PGI eye centre jampacked

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 20

All beds at the fourth floor of the Advanced Eye Centre at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) are occupied with patients who were brought in with eye injuries on and after Diwali.

As many as 37 patients are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital and the number is expected to rise in the coming days.

PGI Director Prof Jagat Ram said: “The number of patients from other states with critical injuries will began to arrive here after a couple of days.”

Seven-year-old Rachit, the youngest among the patients with an eye injury, was celebrating Diwali along with his friends at a colony in Kharar last night when a splinter of a firecracker hit his right eye.  Doctors said efforts were on to salvage his eyesight. Later, during the day he was operated upon.

Mahd Iyaan, a resident of Malerkotla in Sangrur, was watching the children bursting crackers in the neighbourhood, claimed Iyaan’s father. Suddenly, the splinter of a cracker struck his right eye. He was rushed to the PGI this morning where he was operated upon.

In another incident, A 14-year-old-girl, hailing from Muzaffar Nagar, UP, suffered burns on both her hands while bursting the crackers. According to doctors, the girl was scheduled to undergo a cataract surgery.

She was staying in Chandigarh with one of her relatives. However, the surgery was postponed as she sustained grievous injury on her hands.

24 bystanders suffer injuries

As many as 24 patients who suffered eye injuries were bystanders, said Prof AK Jain, senior eye surgeon at the PGI. Defying the common theory that injuries are caused due to the fire of crackers, Prof Jain said the majority of the injured suffered injuries due to the splinters of stones which explode after bursting of a cracker.