Radiation victims battle for life

Deepak Jain, the owner of the Mayapuri scrap shop in West Delhi where the radiation leak happened, was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit at the Apollo Hospital on April 4 – after more than a week of exposure to high-intensity gamma rays. Doctors say he is in a critical state.

His bone marrow is significantly suppressed and his relatives are not willing to take the risk of shifting him to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.  Four of Jain’s workers – Ram Jeevan, Ram Kalap, Rajinder and Gorakh – are undergoing treatment at AIIMS. Though the condition of all four is serious, two of them are in a critical state with platelet counts going below 10,000. For a healthy person, the count is in lakhs.

Another person from the same locality is also undergoing treatment at AIIMS. On Thursday and Friday, radiation was detected from four shops in Mayapuri that created a public scare.
Meanwhile, doctors are considering bone marrow transplantation as the last option to cure the victims. But Jain’s condition is so fragile, it’s still not certain whether bone marrow transplantation will be possible for him. The radioactive material (Cobalt-60) was taken to Narora atomic power station, Uttar Pradesh. Police and atomic energy officials are still investigating on its source.