Doctors at Hosmat Hospital in the city, where 24 year-old national athlete K C Chandana is being treated, said that she will be out of action for the next three months as she was operated on her femur and nasal bone after she was injured on Wednesday when a huge branch of a tree fell on her.
One more operation on her hip bone will be performed on Saturday. A relative of Chandana held BBMP responsible for the incident.
Dr Ajit Benedict Royan said: “She was admitted on Wednesday night and her injuries are major ones. Doctors operated on her and she is responding well to the treatment.”
Chandana was returning home on her two-wheeler after her high jump practice at Kanteerava Stadium when a huge tree branch fell on her. “The incident could have been averted if the BBMP forest cell, which is tasked with monitoring and cutting dead and diseased trees, had done its job as desired,” said Chandana’s cousin V Dinesh.
He said: “Chandana was preparing for the national inter-state athletics meet beginning in Chennai on Tuesday. But that may not happen now.”
When contacted, Divisional Forest Officer B.P Chandrashekar said: “The incident was unfortunate. It is not fair to point fingers at the department as we have been doing our duty round-the-clock. The department has 14 teams with 10 members each. The first batch of nine teams will patrol in the morning and five will patrol at night. It is very difficult to predict which tree will fall. Sometimes, a good tree will be uprooted due to strong winds. The department, in the last one week, attended to 175 calls.” Now employed with the Railways, Chandana’s personal best in high jump is 1.78 m. Last season, she was ranked fourth by the Athletics Federation of India. She represented India in the Asian Grand Prix series held in 2009 and 2010.
