Mumbai: This year Mumbai celebrated a relatively safer Diwali, with major hospitals across the city reporting no deaths due to bursting of crackers.
Moreover, the cases of burn injuries also saw a significant decline this year. Only 30 cases of burn injuries were reported across state and civic-run hospitals as opposed to 50 last year.
Dean of KEM hospital Dr Hemant Deshmukh credited increased awareness among people for the significant decline in number of injuries this Diwali.
Seven cases of injury were reported at the civic–run National Burns Centre (NBC) at Airoli. Out of the seven, five were children and two were adults who sustained injuries while bursting crackers.
Ten patients were treated for superficial injuries at the Out Patient Department (OPD) in civic-run clinics. The state-run J.J. Hospital reported five patients who suffered eye injuries as a result of bursting of crackers.
The head of the ophthalmology department at the state-run J.J. hospital, Dr T. P. Lahane, said, “Three people have been admitted for eye injuries, while fewer cases of perforation (due to lodging of foreign objects) have been reported this year.”
Notably, cracker injuries involving children, too, were far less compared to previous years. The cases of burn injuries saw at least a 60 per cent dip this year during Diwali celebrations.
Dr Sunil Keswani, director of NBC, told The Asian Age, “Last year, we had 10-15 cases, while this year we have recorded only seven cases. These are cases of children with second-degree burn injuries. They just need a regular dressing in the end.”
