Girl dies of drug poisoning, 160 plus taken ill

In a shocking incident, a 12-year-old girl from Govandi in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai died and several others taken ill after showing signs of poisoning following a medical dose given at a civic-run Urdu medium school.

The victims are from the Sanjay Nagar BMC Urdu School No. 2 at Govandi suburbs of Mumbai.

The deceased girl was identified as Chandni Mohammed Shaikh, who died on Thursday night.

The school is run by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and iron and folic acid tablets were administered to the students of the school on Monday.

Around 35 to 40 students are currently admitted to the Rajawadi Hospital at Ghatkopar and Shatabdi Hospital at Govandi. All of them are out of danger.

Because of signs of poisoning, 160 plus other students were treated at various hospitals including Rajawadi and Shatabdi hospitals.

Chandni’s father Shahid Ali Shaikh held the BMC responsible for his daughter’s death. “The tablets were not good. Every year, the school asks consent of parents before they give any drugs or administer injection. But it was not the case this time,” he said.

According to him, after she was given medicine, she complained of pain in stomach and chest. “Doctors initially said, it was cough and asked for X-ray. Later she started vomiting and died before anything could not done. Now my son too has shown similar symptoms and he too hospitalized,” said Shaikh, a resident of Bainganwadi.

The BMC, however, has clarified that the girl was administered medicine on Monday. On Tuesday, she was absent. However, she was present in school on Wednesday and Thursday. She died at her Baiganwadi residence on Thursday night.

The post-mortem was conducted on Friday and the report is awaited. “We would be able to tell about the cause only after the post-mortem report,” said Padmaja Keskar, Executive Health Officer of BMC.

“Kids from our locality were vomiting and feeling uneasy, restless and having headache so we rushed them to hospitals,” said Rehana, a lady from the Govandi locality, who had accompanied parents to the Rajawadi Hospital.