Fewer casualties this year...
Even as the Govindas made human pyramid and tried to smash the Dahi Handi at various places in the city, there were very few persons who suffered injuries as compared to last year.
A visit to the KEM Hospital revealed that even by around 2:20 pm in the afternoon there were only five
patients who had been brought to the casualty department for treatment. According to Adesh Malkar, a volunteer, who was helping the patients said that last year there were around 125 patients who had been brought to the hospital by this time.
“It seems that the restrictions made by the Supreme Court have worked and the human tiers are not going beyond a certain height,” he said. Even the injuries suffered by the patients are not very serious and most of them had suffered only bruises and cuts to their bodies, the volunteer said. Malkar revealed that there are several volunteers who had stationed themselves outside the casualty ward of the hospital so that the patients can be immediately taken in and given the necessary care and attention.
A 12-year-old girl, Shruti More was an unlikely patient who was brought from the Kumbharwada area of Girgaum and who had injured her head while playing near the Dahi Handi pandal.
“She was playing with her friends and watching the goings on of the festival when she lost her balance and hit her head on the road,” said her father. However, the doctors have advised her to be admitted for observation and have also asked to undergo some tests, he added.
The head of department of orthopaedic surgery, DR SK
Srivastava said that they have made elaborate arrangements for the patients in the casualty ward and have stationed their doctors to give the necessary treatment. The number of cases this year has been much less compared to last year and this is definitely a good thing to happen. “We have seen cases where Govindas who have gotten seriously injured while trying to climb the human chain and have suffered injuries to their back and spinal cord, he said. There is also now a greater awareness about the need to have insurance for the mandals so that any injury to the Govindas can be treated without any difficulty.
Even by late evening, the number of injured had only climbed to 10 with only one Govinda having a shoulder dislocation. “For today, our volunteers have ensured that no patient coming from any Dahi Handi location is made to wait for carrying out tests like MRI and CT Scan, if he is not able to pay for any reason,” Malkar said.
According to Dr J B Bhavani, medical superintendent of St. George’s Hospital, they have not received a single patient till late evening from any Dahi Handi location.
“However, we have made all the necessary arrangement for any patients who come in even late at night, because many of the Dahi Handis are broken by the Govindas at this time,” he added.
Medical superintendent of GT Hospital, Dr DK Kulkarni said that they have got four patients till late evening and none of them had any serious injuries. “They only had minor cuts and hence they were sent off after treating them on OPD basis,” he added.