Bengaluru received less rainfall on Thursday, prompting people to come out and burst firecrackers as part of Deepavali celebrations. But there were side effects, too: more cases of eye injury were reported at hospitals.
Most of those who reported eye injuries were children who happened to be bystanders, according to doctors. The number of eye injury cases at the state-run Minto Opthalmic Hospital shot up to 23 on Thursday but most patients didn’t require hospitalisation, the hospital’s director, Dr T K Ramesh, said. “At least 12 of those injured were under ten. Five were aged between 10 and 20.”
Three children were severly injured and required hospitalisation. One of them had to undergo surgery.
The eight-year-old resident of Srinagar locality was injured when a rocket lit elsewhere hit his eye while he was with his family. His right eye has been severely injured.
Another child, a nine-year-old from Kolar, was also rushed to hospital. He, too, was an onlooker. The third boy to be severely injured is a 14-year-old from Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. He is being operated upon. The hospital had received just six cases on Wednesday.
Sankara Eye Hospital reported 16 cases. One of the patients, a four-year-old girl child, is severely injured and has a bleeding retina. She injured her eye when she stepped out of her house while crackers were being burst.
A 53-year-old man has injured his eye to the extent that it may lead to a partial defect in vision. He is being treated at Samprathi Eye Hospital. “He was a bystander. A rocket that was wrongly placed hit his spectacles, pierced through and damaged his eyeball,” said Dr Arun Samprathi who is treating him. The hospital saw two cases on Thursday.
Published 12 November 2015, 20:53 IST