Fire cracker patients lament due to lack of medical facility

The atmosphere boomed a couple of days ago when the firecrackers factory at Sivakasi burst out into flames due to a firecracker mishap. A high-intensity explosion took place in the Om Sakthi Factory, snatching away life breath from nearly 38 lives and leaving 62 injured. The injured people were rendered help at the only available government hospital at Sivakasi . The hospital is ill-equipped has only 12 beds to offer to the seriously wounded patients. The state of the hospital Sivakasi is the hub of firecrackers in the country, with nearly 750 cracker units, giving employment to lakhs of workers at the fireworks factories. There is only one government hospital to cater to the ailing patients with only 12 beds for the in-house patients. There is a scarcity of staff, infrastructure and medical equipment imperative to deal with burn victims who throng the emergency rooms every Deepavali, due to the unexpected explosions. The hospital lacks “ice water “necessary for cold therapy to the burn victims for relieving burning sensations. “We have only 4 doctors, and all of them pediatricians, against a sanctioned strength of 17. There is not even a single doctor exclusively for the burns ward which has only 2 staff nurses. As for hospital and sanitary workers, there are only 7,” claimed a nurse. The hospital craves for a generator or refrigerator that is compulsory machinery in a hospice. The condition of patients A worried nurse bewailed saying “The first thing done when a burns victim is rushed is to give him or her cold therapy for which we need to buy cans and cans of cold water from outside as there is not even a refrigerator in the hospital,”rnThe patients are treated with lukewarm tap water by pouring it from the buckets or hose as there are no showers in the bathrooms. The men and women sections have 4 air conditioners in a pitiful state and the frequent power cuts add to the woes of the hurt people. The burns ward hosted in a new building with a skin graft department room, lab and separate quarters for men and women remain devoid of patients. The explosion The Om Sakhti Fireworks explosion is largest calamity in the last 20 years. Investigations are on and the DGP Bhola Nath pointed out that “The owners of the godown had stored high quantities of chemical in a store room which were to be used later. When the fire spread, this chemical storeroom exploded and the concrete shrapnel that flew from the blast site hit all the people who ran towards the factory to help the ones trapped inside. This was the main reason behind the high death toll.”