CHENNAI: Four women patients of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Kilpauk died and 30 others sick inmates were admitted to the Communicable Diseases Hospital on Friday.
Though the cause of death or sickness was yet to be ascertained, officials attributed it to intake of contaminated water.
The four women, who were suffering from chronic schizophrenics and were admitted to Ward 16, died on wee hours on Friday between 12.30 and 4 am, according to officials.
“We have sent their bodies to the Government General Hospital for post-mortem.
Since they died within a few hours of each other we want to confirm the causes of death.
Over-exposure to the weather and the rains possibly exacerbated their conditions,” said Dr R Sathianathan, director of IMH.
The post-mortem results is expected in two days. Doctors said they generally saw an increase in deaths at the IMH in this season.
Meanwhile, 30 women from the same ward were admitted to the Communicable Diseases Hospital on Friday morning with severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
“We think some form of water contamination has caused their illnesses. We have taken motion samples and also examined the wards.
The women are all stable and recovering,” said director of Medical Education, Dr S Vinayagam.
The whole institute is inundated with water. The women’s ward that is already overcrowded with patients, has calf-deep water. Patients are seen sitting on their cots with their legs up.
“The water has entered most of the rooms. We’re cleaning it but it keeps coming back,” said a nurse adding that an open drain nearby has made the situation gloomy.
The four women who died were identified as K Roselyn, 43, of Thoothukudi; Mehenji, 32; Muthuselvi, 48, of Tirunelveli and Rajammal, 71 of Arumbakkam. Rajammal had been in IMH for 16 years and was both a diabetic and a cardiac patient.
Muthuselvi had been there for six months and had very low blood pressure and peripheral circulatory failure, while the other two were undernourished and anaemic, said Dr S Nambi, consultant psychiatrist at the IMH.
Health secretary V K Subburaj said there was a possibility of water contamination as the open drain could have led to sewage water mixing with rainwater. “Unfortunately the patients drink any water available when they are thirsty. It is possible that they drank the water outside and fell ill,” he said.
Meanwhile, all other patients at IMH have been given prophylactic antibiotics.
Wards are being cleaned and sanitised and PWD officials have been brought in to clear the water, Subburaj said.
On the ward condition, he said a new ward built at a cost of Rs 2 crore was almost ready as only the electricity work was pending. “I have asked them to finish the work in 10 days so the patients whose wards are in bad condition can be moved there.”