Take care of your eyes while bursting crackers, doctors at Minto caution

With Deepavali fast approaching, doctors at the government-run Minto Ophthalmic Hospital have urged people to protect their eyes.

They asked them to take preventive measures to protect children since a majority of injury cases they treat are children, especially boys. The hospital has been treating cracker-related eye injuries on Deepavali day since 2008 and the numbers go up to 65 each year. The pandemic put a brake to this alarming rise last year thanks to restrained gathering. The hospital only saw 23 cases.

In 2020, seven children brought to the hospital were in the 9-12 age group and six were in the 5-8 age bracket. Ten among the 23 treated were innocent bystanders.

Minto’s director Dr Sujatha Rathod said that the hospital would work full-strength from October 31 until November 7 (while Deepavali is celebrated on November 5) to handle cracker-related chemical injuries. Ordinarily, just one senior staffer, a senior resident and one postgraduate would be on duty in a unit.

“Two male children and a male adult came to the hospital last year and they had irreversible damage to their eyes,” Dr Sujatha said. “Their optic nerve was damaged and all three lost vision in one eye.”

She said the whole 300-bedded hospital, including OTs and wards, would be geared up to handle eye injuries from October 31 onwards.

At least 100 beds will be reserved to treat cracker-related injuries in men, women and children.

“We’ve 33 doctors, 77 postgraduates, and nursing staff. All of them will be working and no one will be given leave,” Dr Sujatha added. The hospital will also be providing hourly updates to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on the injuries treated at the hospital. This being the first Deepavali after second wave of Covid19, monitoring is crucial, the director added.

Although the hospital has stocked up essential medicine, cleansers, gauze, equipment and other medical resources required for surgery for cracker injuries (considered chemical burns), doctors hope that the use of green crackers will lessen the severity of injury.

“We hope Covid-restricted behaviour will be in place, which, in addition to green crackers, will make injuries less severe,” Dr Sujatha said. She also cautioned that green crackers are not entirely chemical-free.

“Some of them are aluminium-free so the chemical injury will come down to some extent but not by much,” she said.

Against the popular notion that eyes should be cleansed with water to reduce burning, doctors said water may internally damage the eye. “Just cover (the injured eye) with a dry handkerchief. Don’t put pressure and reach the nearest eye hospital,” Dr Sujatha said. “If the eye has structural damage, water or drops will seep through the back of the eye to the brain stem. So (such practices) aren’t advisable,” she further said.