At least 50 cases with eye injuries were reported at Hyderabad's Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital in Mehdipatnam on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, a night when maximum crackers were burst in city, on occasion of Diwali festival.
At least 40 of the cases reported were children between the ages of six and 12 and a total of six children were operated upon and are currently under observation.
Doctors are yet to determine if there will be vision loss and the magnitude of the injuries that occurred. While those who underwent surgery had perforated injuries, the others have been diagnosed with chemical injuries and medical treatment is in progress, informed the doctors at the hospital. Among these cases, one 18-year-old Engineering student from Ibrahimpatnam was gravely injured.
"We are yet to determine if the sight of this student will be restored. We have operated on the six children and we are waiting to determine what needs to be done further. Children tend to recover faster than adults. This is commonly the age group that often comes to the hospital with fire cracker injuries after Diwali. We have been advising people to burst crackers under supervision for a long time now," said Dr Ravinder Goud, in-charge superintendent of the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital.
Some of the children had perforated injuries and hence needed to be operated, while chemicals were washed out in case of others and medical treatment is still ongoing.
Most of the cases came in from the city, but a few also came in from as far as Medak and Karimnagar, added the superintendent.
Parents of children shocked and saddened
Shell shocked over the incident and shivering with fear, 27-year-old M Lalitha, mother of 11-year-old Vignesh from Nakrekal shared that the incident occurred while both the parents left for work, like any other day. "I have no idea what is going to happen. Doctors performed surgery on both his eyes but they haven't told me if his vision will be back or if any permanent damage occurred. We have to wait and see," she said, tears welling up.
Another 12-year-old, K Sushant, suffered injuries after stone particles created a hole in his eye ball. Koyla Banesh, father of the child who hails from Peddapalli district is also worried if his son's vision will be restored to normal. "It is unfortunate that despite being cautious, something as small as a stone could create so much impact on his eye," he said.