Happy to see Akash, 5, jumping with joy after firing a bomb, little did his parents know that it could be the last flash of light in his life. Like him, eight more children suffered eye injuries. “One of the victims has completely lost his vision, but others may show positive signs after surgery,” said Amod Gupta, head of advance eye centre, PGI.
In yet another case, watching a misdirected rocket proved detrimental for Vivek, 10, from Patiala. “He was enjoying the fireworks from a distance when all of a sudden something hit his eyes,” said his relative.
Narrating a similar incident, nine-year-old Akash’s mother from Parwanoo said, “We were in our balcony when a rocket left my son injured.”
After seeing one of the brightest flames of the festival, these eye injury cases are in bandages at the moment. “Out of 13 surgeries performed, six cases have shown bleak chances of regaining vision,” Gupta said.
While some of the eye injury cases were due to the misdirected fireworks, others were the outcome of faulty experiments.“One of the patients had inserted the explosive in a plastic pipe to enhance the speed of the projectile,” said Amit Gupta, ophthalmologist, PGI.
“My son was seeing the neighbours when a splinter from a cracker entered his eye,” said Manju, mother of Sachin, 6, from Derrabassi. Only after operating upon him will the doctors come to know if he could see again or not. Sunandan Sood, head of the opthamology, GMCH said, “We will conduct the surgery only after his chest infectionsubsides. He is the most serious eye injury case in our hospital. Out of the 12 cases reported, six were admitted and three were discharged, but they all do not have a normal vision now.”
“Out of 23 injured, majority of the patients are in the age group of 8-15 years,” said Amit Gupta, eye bank in charge, PGI.
Besides eye injuries, not-so-serious facial and hand injuries were also reported. PGI witnessed seven body burn cases, while GMCH had 24 burn cases.
No comments:
Post a Comment