The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Woman dies, nine taken ill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 26, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Woman dies, nine taken ill

Staff Reporter

They ate rotis made of semolina; food poisoning suspected

VICTIM: Meena at Victoria Hospital in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Bangalore: A woman died and nine members of a family were taken ill after consuming "rave (semolina) rotis" on Sunday.

The nine persons have been admitted to Victoria Hospital. The victims, who are residents of Goreguntepalya, were referred to Victoria Hospital from K.C. General Hospital. As their condition was serious, they were referred to Victoria Hospital, the police said.

The RMC Yard police, who have registered a case, gave the name of the victims as Dhananjaya (24), Suresh (13), Sunitha (19), Kalavathi (33), Ambika (38), Meena (16), Arun Kumar (20), Dayavani (26) and Armugam (46). The dead was identified as Vishalakshi (33), who was Ms. Dayavani's neighbour.

Ms. Dayavani said that her relative Velu, who works at the RMC Yard, gave her half a sack of semolina three days ago. "I used the semolina to make rotis for everybody this morning. I even gave some to my neighbour Vishalakshi. We ate it and sometime later, started feeling drowsy," she said. She said that after they all woke up, they started developing symptoms, including general weakness, breathlessness and stomach-ache. They all went to K.C. General Hospital from where they were referred to Victoria Hospital.

K.V. Ashok Kumar, Medical Superintendent of Victoria Hospital, told The Hindu that the 10 patients had developed symptoms of various degrees when they were admitted to the hospital. The condition of one person (Vishalakshi) was serious, as she was in a "state of shock". She reportedly died soon after being admitted. Two patients have been admitted in the ICU, while three patients have been put on ventilators.

The doctors suspect that the victims may be suffering from botulism (food poisoning).

The hospital only has five ventilators in working condition. "We had 10 ventilators. Five have been returned to the Government for repairs. We had to use two ambu-bags, as we did not have enough ventilators," Mr. Kumar said.

"Another problem we are facing is that anti-toxin to treat the victims is not available. We have checked with the other major hospitals and pharmacies. It is not available anywhere," said S.M. Shivaprasad, in-charge of the medical unit.

Coupled with non-availability of anti-toxin and ventilators, the hospital is reeling under severe staff shortage. "We had to bring in doctors and nurses from other wards to treat the victims," he said.

He also said that four patients were taken to other hospitals against medical advice. The patients, he said, were clinically stable at the moment. "However, we will keep them under observation for the next 40 hours," he said.

N.L. Narendra Babu, Rajajinagar MLA, who visited the victims, told presspersons that he had called Minister for Health R. Ashok urging him to provide treatment to the victims.

Radha, one of the victims' relatives who gathered outside the hospital, said that she came rushing to the hospital as soon as she got the news. Raju, husband of Vishalakshi, refused to speak to presspersons. Vishalakshi's four-month-old baby girl, who was crying, was being consoled by one of her relatives.

The police said that the semolina, of which rotis were made, had been sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section