173 burns cases in 12 hours at Safdarjung Hospital

The number of burns cases went up significantly during the Diwali festivities with inferior quality fire-crackers being the culprit in most cases.

The number of burns cases went up significantly during the Diwali festivities with inferior quality fire-crackers being the culprit in most cases.

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Such crackers, available in abundance at all markets across the city, caused most of the burn injuries this Diwali.
Anar (flowerpot) has been the primary culprit, as a majority of those admitted in various hospitals attributed their injury to the cracker exploding virtually in their face.

“All those campaigns about cracker-free Diwali does not seem to have worked as we saw a jump of about 15 per cent in burns cases than last year,” said Dr KT Bhowmik, additional medical superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital.

The hospital, which is the largest burns unit of the world as far as patient turnover is concerned, reported 173 cases on Tuesday, out of which 11 were serious enough to require admission. The maximum number of patients started coming in after 5pm, and had injuries on face, neck and hands.

“In 2009-10, we saw lesser number of cases, but last year the number went up again and this year it was no better. The cases are still pouring in and cheap quality crackers like the made-in-China ones are to be blamed,” said Dr LK Makhija, head of department of Burns and Plastic Surgery at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

The hospital received 41 burns cases on Tuesday, about 20 per cent higher than the previous year. One person had serious burn injuries and had to be admitted.

Lok Nayak, one of the biggest Delhi government hospitals, received 38 burns victims of which eight had to be admitted.Even private hospitals in the city received burns cases; Fortis Hospitals across Delhi-NCR treated 31 burns patients but only three needed admission.

Moolchand Hospital’s centre for emergency and urgent care also treated 18 burns cases.The cases had started pouring in a few days before Diwali, and doctors say they continue to receive cases after the festival too.
Safdarjung has had a special out-patient department running round-the-clock, two days prior to the festival and will continue for two more days post-Diwali, especially for burns victims.“Our whole department was on duty 24X7, which includes senior specialists,” said Dr Bhowmik.