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Intense heatwave claims at least 53 lives, confirm Delhi hospitals
This is the first time the state government has confirmed deaths due to the year’s sizzling temperatures
Delhi’s toll during the year’s unforgiving summer rose to at least 53 on Thursday, with public hospitals and the state government confirming that dozens succumbed to the heat since April, even as temperatures across the city dropped several degrees on the back of a sharp spell of winds the previous night.
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The central government-run Safdarjung and Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals confirmed that 15 and 11 more people respectively had died of heat stress during a brutal summer in which temperatures have largely remained well above normal, even deep into the night.
HT on Wednesday reported that the two hospitals had earlier confirmed six and seven heat deaths.
Separately, Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday said that 14 people across the Capital had died of the heat in the past 48 hours. He did not, however, confirm the status of 40 suspected heat-related deaths that the state-run Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital reported between June 11 and June 18.
This is the first time the state government has confirmed deaths due to the year’s sizzling temperatures. HT on Wednesday reported one such death at the state-government run Lok Nayak hospital.
To be sure, the high temperatures in Delhi are likely to have claimed around 100 more lives than the current numbers suggest, including the 40 at DDU, though these will only be attributed to the heat if autopsies confirm them as such.
Moreover, the summer toll may actually be far higher than that reported by health facilities since a major chunk of deaths are likely to go unreported and because the correlation between the temperature and a death is often difficult to piece together.
Delhi’s death count spiralled on a day the city snapped an unfettered 11-day long heatwave spell as an approaching western disturbance slashed the maximum temperature from 43.6°C on Wednesday to 40°C on Thursday.
Further, the city also broke its “warm night” streak, as the minimum temperature plunged from a 55-year record of 35.2°C on Wednesday to 29.6°C.
Meanwhile, 33 more patients with severe heat-related illnesses were admitted in Safdarjung Hospital’s emergency unit, even as 26 more people were brought to RML Hospital between Wednesday and Thursday, said officials in both facilities.
In all, at least 26 patients are critical and on life support at RML, and 10 sick are in Safdarjung.
To adjust to the surge in cases, Safdarjung Hospital added 10 ventilator beds in its heatstroke ward on Thursday, in addition to the 13 existing beds. In RML, the eight-bedded “disaster ward” was also opened up for heatstroke patients.
“The rush of patients is huge. Heatstroke patients make a beeline outside the emergency, especially after noon. Several teams are working round-the-clock, in shifts, in the emergency unit,” said RML Hospital medical superintendent Dr Ajay Shukla.
Officials at Safdarjung Hospital who asked not to be named also said the facility was shoring up infrastructure to handle patients reporting heat-related stress.
“The number of beds had to be increased significantly given the rush of patients has been seeing a massive jump. Thursday’s hospital data show there were 33 new patients with symptoms of severe heat-related illnesses that arrived at the hospital emergency in the past 24 hours,” he said.
Addressing a press briefing on Thursday evening, Bharadwaj confirmed that 14 people across the Capital had died of the heat in 48 hours. “Around 310 heatstroke patients were admitted to Delhi government hospitals in the last 48 hours, of which 112 have recovered, while 118 are still admitted. A total of 14 people have died,” the minister said.
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“Of these 14, almost all of them already had preexisting conditions like cancer or kidney disease, which worsened their condition,” Bhardwaj added.
Referring to the 40 reported heat deaths at DDU Hospital, he said, “DDU hospital has said the police have brought in several unclaimed bodies. It is a matter of inquiry. We have ordered the postmortem examinations to ascertain the cause of death.”
