The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Hospitals register rise in burn cases
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — As many as 240 to 250 burn cases are currently being reported every year in the Department of Plastic Surgery at the PGI. Of these, nearly 20 per cent report with major burns of 60 per cent and above, and the mortality rate is quite high among them. The cases of burns in GMCH-32 and Sector 16 General Hospital have also shown increase.

According to information available, majority of burn injury cases are homicidal, where women sustain burns following attempts made by their husbands and in-laws to put them on fire on the issue of dowry or other differences. The remaining 40 per cent cases are either accidental or suicidal. A senior doctor in the PGI maintains that in certain cases it is not possible to ascertain the cause of burns and we normally go by what is told to us by the patient.

Dr S.P Kaushik, a surgeon at GMCH-32, said that the degree of burn depends on the depth of the burn and the area which gets affected. Survival is a problem in patients who sustain more than 60 per cent burns, it is rare in case of those with above 70 per cent burns and among those who sustain above 90 per cent burns, the chances of survival are nil. He disclosed that burn shock usually leads to the death of patients in three-four days. Some die during the first week due to multiple organ failure or during the third week when wounds get infected.

Doctors dealing with burn cases say that superficial burns heal with dressing but grafting has to be done in serious cases to repair the dead skin by taking some portion of the skin from thighs, scalp, feet, abdomen etc. In case of simple burns, the patient is first treated of burn shock through medicines. He is also given plenty of fluids to maintain the water balance in the body, besides antibiotics to control the spread of infection. The dressing of the wounds has to be done regularly.

Patients admitted to the PGI with serious burns are hospitalised for four to six months before being discharged. A senior doctor puts it that this is not the end of agony as many of them have to go in for subsequent reconstructive surgeries to correct the deformities of joints, face, nose, ear etc. It is very important to boost the morale of the patient as well as his relatives. “Burn treatment is hard work, for proper dressing of a major burn takes up to three hours and you need three people to do that dressing,’’ says a senior plastic surgeon of the PGI.

The PGI has not got a separate burns unit as yet but a part of one of the wards is being used to treat 20 to 25 patients. The cost of treating a burn patient is more than the cost of open heart surgery, dialysis for kidney patients, keeping in view the number of days a patient has to spend in hospital and the number of doctors and nurses who attend upon him.

Cases of burns are also reported during Divali. Last year, GMCH-32 had a total of 147 patients. The hospital has a separate burns unit, which is sterilised by chemicals and fumigation. The serious patients are referred to the PGI for correction of deformities.

The use of kerosene stove is also reportedly responsible for a large number of burn cases, both intentional and accidental. In certain cases, burns are caused by spillage of hot liquid and they are serious if the temperature of the liquid is above 100 degrees centigrade. Doctors advise that taking into account the increase in burn cases due to kerosene stoves, the use of these stoves should be banned and people should be encouraged to use the regular janata stoves, which are much safer.

New acupressure technique introduced
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — Dr Attar Singh, an acupressure therapist, has introduced a new technique to ensure speedy treatment of various ailments.

According to him the new technique is combination of body-balancing-cum-acupressure. He maintains that before giving acupressure for a particular disease, over active as well as inactive energy channels in the body are found through a special technique which is based on concentration of mind by the patient as well as the therapist. Once the defective energy channels are found, it becomes easy to restore natural balance in the body through acupressure.

Dr Singh claims that this technique, which has been developed by him by studying the oriental concept of healing, will greatly help in the speedy cure of numerous diseases. He runs an acupressure health, centre in Sector 43.

SPORT

SAI schemes in doldrums
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — All is not well with the Northern Centre of the Sports Authority of India, Sector 42, if one goes by the progress of the schemes announced this year. This centre became operational more than a decade ago and has been conducting National Sports Talent Centre (NSTC) schemes and Sports Training Centres (STCs) covering Punjab, Haryana, HP, J&K and Chandigarh. Players from all over India had been coming here for training under SAI coaches.

This year a number of schemes were announced for the new centres along with new inputs for the existing ones. Selection trials in athletics, volleyball, hockey, gymnastics, football and rowing were allotted to DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, and held twice before the beginning of the session of the NSTC scheme.

Earlier, four of the six centres were being run at Shivalik Public School, Sector 41. Even if it has been decided to shift these to DAV School, still the coaches working there have not been relieved by the school. After a long wait, DAV School was told that since the NSTC schemes were under review, they would be given day boarding schemes. This was declared by Dr P.C. Kashyap, Director-Incharge, SAI, at a press conference on July 11. But according to sources in the corporate office at Delhi, no day boarding scheme had yet been allotted to DAV School. This has disturbed the work in the current session.

Meanwhile, Shivalik Public School decided to set up hockey and volleyball academies at the school. The hockey academy which started two months ago, is being run under an SAI coach, Mr B.S. Randhawa. For the volleyball academy, trials concluded on August 8 and another SAI coach, Mr Mohan Nargeta, will do the coaching.

The new STC centres for girls at Badal (Muktsar) and for boys at Mastuana Sahib (Sangrur) and Special Area Games (SAG) at Anandpur Sahib were also to be opened in the last week of this month.

As far as the sports sciences centre proposed to be set up in Sector 42 is concerned, the Governor of Punjab, Lieut Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), was told during his visit on June 7 that it would be completed in three months. But with the stipulated date approaching fast, only one rowing exercise Ergometer machine is seen in the hall meant for the centre.

Trials for the proposed Centre of Excellence scheme in women’s hockey were held last month and it was considered an effort duplicated since the STC, Sector 18, was already producing women’s hockey players. This centre to be established at Sector 42 does not have a playing turf as the astro-turf there has been damaged and needs to be replaced. Four rooms have been allotted to this centre and six girls will be accommodated in each room. No coach of national repute has been appointed for this centre which is expected to produce international players.

The Chandigarh Football Academy became operational on August 7. It will give daily practice to 24 boys.

Dr Kashyap said that funds were no problem for any of the scheme, but he was facing the problem of co-ordination with the UT Administration. This month, the UT Sports Department also shifted its offices to the Sector 42 complex. The Sports Department has also written to the Northern Centre of SAI to pay the arrears of electricity and water bills which have been pending for the past many years. According to an agreement between the SAI and the UT Administration, no rent was to be charged but the SAI was liable to pay other charges, said Mr J.P.S. Sidhu, Joint Director Sports, UT.

Independence Day celebrated
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — The eves of Sports Authority of India, Sports Training Centre, Sector 18, celebrated Independence Day on their hostel campus this morning. The chief guest at this one-hour programme was Mr D.S. Saroya, DPI (Schools).

The girls presented patriotic songs, poems and skits. Volleyball players won most of the prizes, which were given away by Mr R.K. Gupta, Deputy Director, SAI. Ms Ritu Pathik, Assistant Director, was also present.

In group song category, volleyball girls were placed first and basketball eves second. In solo song category, volleyball players were first and hockey girls second.

DAV-8 win
DAV School Coaching Centre, Sector 8, outplayed SGGS School, Sector 35, 29-21 in the final of the UT sub-junior handball championship for girls at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8. The half-time score was 17-9 in favour of DAV. The scorers were Aaga and Rina with 9 each, Sunena 5 and Gurpreet 3. Parveen scored 12 for the losers.

Tennis tourney
The Manav Mangal open table tennis tournament will begin at Sector 23 TT hall tomorrow. The three-day meet is being organised by Manav Mangal High School, Sector 21, and its Sector 11, Panchkula, branch. The prizes will be sponsored by Lions Club, Chandigarh Central.

The tournament is being played in four events — cadet boys and girls, sub-junior boys and girls, junior boys and girls, and men and women. As many as 300 players from the region will take part. Varun Kassal and Amarpreet Kaur are top seeds in under-17 boys and girls sections, respectively. Aditya Puri and Akshdeep Kaur have been given top billing in under-14 section. In cadet boys and girls sections, Sameer Singla and Preeti Jain have been given pride of place.

Carrom tournament
The inter-school ICSE carrom tournament , Chandigarh region, will be conducted by St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, on school premises on August 19. The events to be conducted include team championships of boys and girls up to class 10 level. Entries for the tournament can be given to Mr W. Willmer, director physical education, St Stephen’s School, on or before August 16.

Hockey trials
The Chandigarh Women Hockey Federation will hold trials to select the probables for the junior national hockey meet to be held at Chennai from August 24 to September 2 at hockey stadium, Sector 42, on August 11 at 4.30 p.m.

School premises encroached
The rear portion of the premises Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Sector 18, Chandigarh which has a hockey ground meant for the Sports Training Centre of the Sports Authority of India, has been encroached upon by the police. Tents have been put for the security personnel of former Director General of Police, Punjab, Mr P.C. Dogra. The school had taken up the matter with the Engineering Department for the construction of a boundary to circumvent that area. This portion of the school premises touches the rear portion of some houses. The chief architect in its letter addressed to the Construction Circle I stated that there had never been any provision of service lane behind the houses in question and opening of gates in real walls of these houses was unauthorised and needs to be checked.

Inter-school badminton
Akshit Mahajan and Dhruv Sharma both of Hansraj Public School, Sector 6 Panchkula, displayed their prowess by beating their opponents in the under-10 section of the inter-schools badminton championship being played at the Sector 7 Community Centre, Panchkula.

Akshit a class 3 student played valiantly to overpower Aman Sethi of Bhavan Vidyalya, Sector 27 in straight games while Dhruva got the better of Harry of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35 also in straight games.

In girls under-14, Sacred Heart School, Sector 26 will take on Little Flower School, Sector 14 Panchkula. In the semi-finals the former won against Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23 at 2-1 while LFS-14-Pkl beat Government Model SS School, Sector 35 at 2-0.

The under-19 girls of Hansraj Public School led by Shruti and Gauri helped their team in reaching finals when they defeated Sacred Heart School, Sector 26 by 2-0. However, HPS boys went down fighting to Bhavan Vidyalya School Sector 27, at 1-2 in the under-19 quarter-finals.

In under-19 boys’ section, Bhavan Vidyalya, Sector 27, DC Model S.S. School, Sector 7, Panchkula, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35 and DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8 reached the last four.

ADMINISTRATION

17 XENs , SDOs transferred
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 11 — The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) today shifted 17 Xens and SDOs.

According to sources, the transfers have been effected as per the directions of the Personnel Department that the officials manning “sensitive” posts for over three years should be transferred. The Xens, Mr Shyam Singh (Division No 2) and Mr Swaran Singh (Division No 4) will swap their posts.

The SDOs and SDEs transferred are Mr AK Duggal, Mr Rajinder Singh, Mr AK Aggarwal, Mr S.S. Malhotra, Mr Subhash Chaudhary, Mr Bhupinder Singh, Mr Amin Chand, Mr V.D. Shahi, Mr Sham Lal and Mr H.S. Bedi, all from the Public Health wing. The other officials, who have been transferred are Mr R.S. Sharma, Mr Mohinder Singh (horticulture wing) and Mr Prem Paul, Mr Vinod Sharma and Mr Sandeep Kaushik (bridges and roads wing).

Gate meeting: Members of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Public Health Workers Union on Friday held a gate rally on the premises of the Sector 12 water works in support of their demands.

Speakers condemned the Chandigarh Administration for its failure to implement the agreement entered into with the coordination committee of the UT and Municipal Corporation Employees and Workers on November 13 last year.