More than 100 suffer eye injuries due to firecrackers, kids affected the most

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

More than 100 people in the city were taken to eye hospitals after getting struck by firecracker bursts on the occasion of Deepavali recently. The numbers this year show a higher admission rate than last year. On Saturday, November 2, Minto Ophthalmic Hospital admitted nine cases. As of 1 pm on Sunday, November 3, the hospital saw four cases of which two were children. This increases the total cases to 49. The count of grievous cases among children has surged this year. Twenty three individuals sustained serious injuries and 26 had minor injuries of which four underwent surgery. As many as 22 cases pertained to bystanders. While Narayana Nethralaya saw 64 cases, Sankara Eye Hospital in Kundalahalli received 18 cases on Saturday of which four were adults and 14 were pediatric cases. All the cases were from in and around Whitefield. Of the 14 cases, nine had major injuries and five are critical, including a three-year-old baby.

Doctors are awaiting an update on the eyesight of the critical cases, specifically of the three-year-old. Despite repeated awareness campaigns and advisories, ophthalmologists feel unnerved by the number of cases being brought in and assume the message may not have reached the mass public. Officials from Bengaluru City Police (BCP), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) have so far registered more than 100 cases against those who did not follow the fireworks rules. The highest number of cases has been recorded in the North-East zone.