Nine-year-old girl electrocuted while plucking fruits, survives

A 9-year-old girl was electrocuted after she came in contact with a wire while plucking fruits from a tree in Palghar late on Thursday. To add to her ordeal, after visits to four hospitals where doctors kept referring her to other hospitals, and a government ambulance breakdown, Rupali Varta was finally admitted at Nair Hospital, a source said. She is responding to treatment, according to a doctor.

Meanwhile, police inspector Manoj Chalke, from Manor police station, said he will question the MSEDCL on the wire, which flouted height norms.

Rupali, a resident of Chahade in Palghar, got stuck to the tree, which was noticed by a sugarcane-juice vendor,who alerted the locals and they informed the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), the source said. According to the source, the company immediately disconnected the supply, after which Rupali was pulled down and rushed first to a hospital in Palghar where the medical officer advised her father to admit her in the Dr Dhawale Hospital in Palghar.

At the Dr Dhawale Hospital, the girl was given first aid and later referred to the Civil Hospi tal, Thane, as Rupali had sus tained 40 per cent burns and severe head damages,which was bleeding. From there, a govern ment ambulance broke down following which the father arranged for a private ambu lance that had no doctor onboard, the source said.

However, the doctors found Rupali’s condition to be serious so they advised her father to admit her at JJ Hospital. There they were told that there was no empty bed to admit Rupali, fol lowing which an activist helped them by arranging for another ambulance to get her to Nair Hospital, the source said.