Deepavali leaves more than 120 injured in Bangalore

More than a 120 persons, a majority of them children, sufferred eye injuries in Bangalore with eye hospitals across the City reporting an increase in the number of cracker-related burns and injuries during the ensuing festival season.

Eye hospitals across the City have put the total number of injured persons at 123, including nine of them, who have lost their sight in one or both the eyes. A majority of the persons brought to eye hospitals in Bangalore turned out to be children with the youngest one being an eighteen-month-old baby.

Leading eye hospitals in Bangalore like Narayana Nethralaya, Minto Eye Hospital, Victoria Hospital and St John’s Hospital were flooded with patients suffering from cracker-related burn injuries in the eye.

Viji, a 32-year-old plumber, was battling for life at Victoria Hospital in Bangalore after sustaining severe burns on his face, chest and hands.

A box of firecrackers burst in Viji’s face after a lit cigarette was accidentally thrown into the box. Doctors attending on him said he had sufferred 45 per cent burns. His respiratory tract had been damaged and the doctors feared that the chances of his survival appeared bleak.

Ten-year-Mubarak had the cornea of his right eye ripped off when a cracker lit by someone else flew into his face near his home in Mattikere in Bangalore. Mubarak, who has now been admitted to St John’s Hospital, is feared to have lost vision in one eye. “He may be given the option of an artificial eye, but the doctors are now asking us to only wait and watch as the injury is very bad”, according to Mubarak’s uncle Vazeer Ahmed.

Amritha, the eighteen-month-old daughter of Siddaramu from Muneshwara Layout in Bangalore, was also among the victims. She had her right eye damaged when a cracker burst by someone hit her in the eye. She has been admitted to Modi Charitable Eye Hospital in Bangalore for treatment.

According to opthalmologist at Minto Eye Hospital Dr Krishnaprasad, a majority of the critical cases across eye hospitals in Bangalore pertain to Hypheama – a condition in which blood accumulates inside the vitreous humour that covers the interior of an eyeball. “This occurs after a severe impact on the eye by a sharp or fiery object. Such a condition normally takes five to six days for the blood to clear, if at all it does, so nothing can be said till then and they would remain critical”, he added.

Health officials have regretted the high number of cracker-related burns during the ensuing Deepavali in Bangalore despite their campaign to create awareness about the dangers of lighting fireworks.