CHENNAI: A 50-year-old man from Cuddalore district who suffered grievous burn injuries in a fire at a firecracker shop on Saturday succumbed to his injuries at the Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) on Monday. Over 160 people were being treated for firecracker-related burn injuries at various hospitals in Chennai on the eve and the day of Deepavali on Sunday.
The deceased, P Karunamoorthy, had suffered 97% burn injuries. According to police, he and four of his family members suffered injuries at the firecracker shop after a fire broke out on Saturday. They were shifted from Cuddalore GH to KMCH, and Karunamoorthy died at around 12.45 am on Monday.
According to data from government hospitals, seven people were treated as in-patients, including the patients from the Cuddalore firecracker shop fire accident, at at the KMCH, the apex hospital for burn injuries in Tamil Nadu. Eighteen people were treated as out-patients in the 24 hours from 7 am on Sunday. Among them, two required major wound management procedures, and 14 required ophthalmic procedures. The hospital allotted a total of 25 beds for intake of burn injury cases due to bursting crackers.
At the Government Royapettah Hospital, 17 were treated as out-patients and one as an in-patient. At the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, nine patients were treated as in-patients, and at the Government Omandurar Medical College Hospital, eight patients were treated as out-patients.
At the Government Ophthalmic Hospital in Egmore, 50 patients were treated as out-patients and five as in-patients.
Emergency calls to 108 up
Calls related to assault, trauma and burns increase on Deepavali day this year when compared to last year. In 48 hours from 7 am on Saturday to 7 am on Monday, the 108 Call centre received as many as 39,634 calls, 462 were related to burns including firecracker-related cases, and 1,627 were related to assault injuries. A total of 1,283 ambulances were deployed on these three days, according to health department.
