One hurt as hospital ceiling collapses

NEW DELHI: The wife of a patient was injured in her head and spine when a portion of the ceiling fell on her at a private hospital in south Delhi last week.

The patient, a cancer survivor, was hospitalised for fever more than a week ago. He and his wife were in a room at National Heart Institute (NHI) on Friday when the incident happened.

“On Friday, we had lunch and were chatting. He was feeling low and I was trying to console him. There was a sudden loud noise and the ceiling collapsed. The debris fell on me,” said T Kalyani, 50, assistant section officer, Delhi government..

After the incident, they were shifted to another room. Both of them have now been put up in the same room. “For a moment, I didn’t know what happened. After multiple tests, I was told I had a crack in my spine and a swollen head and face.”

“Now that I am also bedridden, we don’t have anyone to take care of us. Our children have flown in but they don’t know much about the city and are in a state of panic,” she said.

The hospital was inaugurated in the early 80s as the clinical research and medical care delivery wing of the All India Heart Foundation. “...it is unfortunate. We are trying to provide her with the best possible medical care,” says Dr OP Yadava, senior cardiac surgeon and head, NHI.

Yadava said it wasn’t exactly a roof collapse. “The hospital has false ceilings. In this room, the false ceiling developed a crack and the plaster came off,” he said.

“The building was made in the early 80s; we are trying to figure out why the sariya (iron rod) was rotting and the plaster came off.”