Toll rises to 13: TN engineer dies at RML

NEW DELHI: He came all the way to thecapital from the southern coastal town of Tuticorin to fight a case. Praised byhis friends to be a most responsible and honest engineer, 55-year-old P Pathiranbecame the 13th victim of the Wednesday blast.On Thursday evening, a group of his colleagues from Tuticorin and Madurai waited anxiously outside Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital’s ICU after they were informed that his condition was deteriorating. His wife, P. Vadioorani, and 25-year-old son, Pradeep Santosh Kumar, sat in front of the ICU in disbelief. His wife wailed inconsolably till around 8 pm, when the doctors finally confirmed that Pathiran had passed away at 7.37 pm.His lawyer, R Nadumaran, who rushed to the hospital aftergetting the news, told TOI that Pathiran was in Delhi to oppose a case that wasfiled against the ministry of surface transport. “He was the deputy headof department of civil engineering at Tuticorin Port Trust. He was a veryresponsible officer. My clerk, Rajapandya, who was helping him and was also inthe queue behind him has sustained injuries from shrapnels. He is also admittedhere,” he added.Pathiran’s relatives and closecolleagues travelled from Tuticorin to Madurai and then took a flight to Chennaiand New Delhi by air to finally reach the hospital around 1 am on Thursday.“Yesterday, both his legs, which had multiple fractures, were operatedupon. But from this afternoon, gradually his organs started failing. He sufferedtwo heart attacks and could not survive the second one,” explained, aSupreme Court lawyer who came with Nadumaran.“Along with themajor surgery, he also had some associated conditions. He was declared dead at7.37 this evening,” confirmed Dr Preeti Kharbanda of the hospital.According to a senior doctor at the hospital, Pathiran was stable till 6.30 pmon Thursday evening. "His condition deteriorated suddenly in the evening. Hesuffered two cardiac attacks, one after the other. One of the reasons for suddendeterioration in his condition could be that a piece of the fat from thefractured bones might have got lodged in the brain. This condition is called fatembolism. But we are yet to find out the exact cause of death,'' said thedoctor.