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10-year-old girl dies in Noida school after choking on food, parents allege negligence
The incident took place at Noida’s Praesidium School in Sector 31 and the victims has been identified as Tanishka Sharma, a student of Class 6.
A 10-year-old student died after choking on her food during lunch break at a school in Noida. The school authorities rushed her to a nearby hospital, but the girl was declared dead on arrival.
The incident took place at Noida’s Praesidium School in Sector 31 and the victims has been identified as Tanishka Sharma, a student of Class 6, Times of India reported.
The parents said that Sharma was "hale and hearty" before leaving for school. During the lunch, a food object allegedly got stuck in Tanishqa’s oesophagus. She used the washroom after lunch and collapsed near the stairs while coming out, police officials told Times of India.
As the school authorities found out, she was taken to the Kailash hospital, which was about 2 km away from the school, but she was declared dead upon arrival.
The police said that a medical autopsy conducted on the body found no external injuries, and the cause of death remains uncertain. The police are still investigating whether there was a lapse on the part of the school in handling the emergency.
According to the police, no foul play has been found so far in the investigation. Meanwhile, the parents of the child have accused the school management of negligence and have submitted a police complaint demanding registration of an FIR against them. The parents claim that Tanishqa was in good health that morning.
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Mother of the child claims that the school staff gave contradictory accounts of the incident and wasted crucial time by first trying to treat the child in the infirmary instead of admitting her to the hospital, the report said. The family has also claimed that initially the staff told them that the child had fainted while eating, but later the staff claimed she collapsed while coming down from the stairs. “These conflicting accounts raise doubts,” the student's uncle said.
The parents are called for a thorough probe into the school’s emergency response, medical records and the staff statements.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson from the school told TOI that some food particles got stuck in her food pipe, and the school took her to the hospital.
