Mumbai blasts: Burns complicate blast victims' condition

MUMBAI: Seconds after the bomb ripped through Khau Galli at Zaveri Bazar, a fire sparked off, charring 11 people; some of them sustained up to 50% burns besides being pierced by shrapnel and other sharp objects.
As the victims were being brought to hospitals, doctors found that at least two out of the 11 patients were severely burnt (50%), another six had more than 30% burns and the rest injured in varying degrees, from 17% to 30%.Operating on a burn patient could be quite "complicated and risky", said a doctor.
Assistant professor of J J Hospital's plastic surgery department Dr Rajat Kapoor said sections like neurosurgery, general surgery and orthopaedics had to join hands to diagnose the burn patients and remove shrapnel lodged in their bodies. "The surgeries were performed all nightlong and after that, they were shifted to the burns unit," said head of surgery at J J Hospital Dr M B Tayade.
Kapoor, however, added that foreign objects could not be removed from the bodies of some who were too critically injured to be operated upon for at least two to three weeks. Like, Sunder Bisht (30), who sustained 50% burns besides suffering a serious fracture on the thigh. Similarly, Deepak Yadav (25) was 17% burnt and also sustained scrotal haematoma (blood clot). Another victim, Ashok Bute (35) with 50% burns, had to bear the pain of his fracture as well as severe trauma of the abdomen for the next few weeks. "The critical patients can be treated for their other wounds only two to three weeks later, when their burns heal," he said. Plastic and cosmetic surgeon Dr Sunil Keswani added that operating on such patients was tough as they were not physiologically fit or haemodynamically (blood circulation) normal.
Though relatives of the victims complained that they were not allowed even a glimpse of their loved ones at J J Hospital, the 12-bed burns unit-working overtime to save the injured- said they had to follow the protocol and keep everyone out of the department. Some patients will require skin-grafting, corrective surgeries as well as physiotherapy. "All those who require collagen sheets (protein sheets) to cover exposed burnt areas have been provided with the facility," Kapoor said.
Kapoor said non-blast patients had been shifted to other wards.
Keswani said all south Mumbai hospitals put together can take care of 100 burns patients and the current situation is not out of control. "But, had the casualties been more, it could have been worrying," he said.