GRH flooded with cases on Deepavali day; Dean asks doctors, para-medical team to work on holiday

The Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH), the referral centre for many southern districts, was flooded with cases on Deepavali Day.

Dean Arul Sundaresh Kumar, who had granted leave to the doctors and para-medical staff, to allow them to celebrate Deepavali, had to recall them to attend to the emergency cases.

On Thursday, though there were not many cases reported in the forenoon, the numbers increased after 3 p.m. Not only burns complaints, even domestic quarrels and disputes between neighbours and other public led to physical assaults.

A police officer at the GRH said that wordy altercations snowballed into physical exchanges between neighbours over bursting of crackers.

At least 95 cases were reported from Madurai and a few southern districts and seven succumbed to injuries, while 28 patients were admitted to the GRH.

When contacted, the Dean said that the hospital had a skeleton strength in each departments with assistance. However, the number of cases, when piled up, senior doctors and a few surgeons were requested to come to duty.

On their joining, the patient flow was handled effectively and treatment procedure followed. All the 10 emergency service vehicles (108), which were stationed at the GRH, plied continuously moving out to different locations and rushing back the patients to the hospital, the doctors said.

A majority of rash and negligent driving cases in an inebriated state was also found to be a cause for the trauma care ward flooding on the festival day, the doctors added.

Published - November 01, 2024 09:25 pm IST