Gujarat: Six killed, 176 injured in kite flying incidents during Uttarayan
Ahmedabad (PTI): At least six persons, among them three children, were killed after their necks were slit by kite strings and 176 were injured due to cuts and falls while flying kites during Uttarayan festival in Gujarat, police said on Monday.
The incidents were reported over the weekend when people came out in large numbers to fly kites on terraces and rooftops during the festivities.
In several cases, revellers used sharp strings to fly kites that ended up getting entangled around the necks of the victims and slitting them in such a way that they bled to death, officials said.
A kite string cut the neck of two-year-old Kirti who was riding with her father on his two-wheeler in Bhavnagar city, and she died during treatment at a hospital on Sunday, an official from Bortalav police station said.
In another incident, Kismat, 3, was walking home with her mother in Visnagar town on Saturday when a thread slit her neck. The girl was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead, a Visnagar police official said.
Similarly, seven-year-old Rishabh Verma was riding with his parents on a two-wheeler after buying a kite when his neck was slit by a string in Rakjot, an official from Aji Dam police station said.
According to the police, similar incidents were reported in Vadodara, Kutch and Gandhinagar districts, where three men lost their lives when their necks were slit by kite strings while they were travelling on their two-wheelers.
Swamiji Yadav, 35, died after his neck was slit by a thread while he was riding his two-wheeler on a bridge, while Narendra Vaghela, 20, was killed in a similar manner in Gandhidham city of Kutch district, Ashwin Gadhvi in Kalol town of Gandhinagar, they said.
As per the data compiled by 108-EMS emergency ambulance service, a total 130 people sustained cuts and 46 were injured after falling from a height while flying kites on Saturday and Sunday.
There was also a spurt in the number of road accidents, with 461 cases on January 15 and 820 on January 14, the data revealed.
Among districts, Ahmedabad recorded the highest number of 59 cases of kite string injuries and 10 cases of falls, the 108-EMS stated in a release.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
