51 deaths in 3 days in Ghaziabad, heatstroke likely cause

GHAZIABAD: At least 51 people, the youngest among them being a 7-month-old girl, are suspected to have died of heat-related illnesses over three days, doctors at the district hospital said on Thursday.
Added to the 14 deaths reported by the district hospital in Noida this week and 32 in 36 hours in Delhi, also likely caused by heat, the numbers underline the human toll of the blistering heatwave that Delhi-NCR has been in the grip of since May.
Of the 51 deaths, 18 were recorded among admitted patients and the remaining were those brought dead to the MMG District Hospital in the city.
Most of the patients were treated for high fever, dehydration, dizziness, vomiting and diarrhoea - all symptoms of heat exhaustion. "They were brought by pedestrians, relatives or police. Many of them were found unconscious on roadsides," a doctor at the hospital said.
Another doctor Santaram Verma said most of the patients who died were labourers, street vendors or those who were working out in the open. "They were anywhere between 15 and 80 years old. Several bodies are yet to be identified as they were found by police or pedestrians," he said.
The district administration said 28 bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination. "All are suspected heat stroke deaths. So far, there is no confirmation yet," said Dr RK Gupta, additional chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.
Most of northwest India, including Delhi-NCR, is witnessing one of the harshest summers in decades. Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for 39 consecutive days.
Till Wednesday, MMG Hospital had admitted 261 patients suffering with heat-related illnesses.
Seven-month-old Anaya, who was brought by her family - residents of Lal Kuan - to the MMG Hospital on Thursday, was among the two suspected fatalities from heat strokes. Geeta (42), of Sahibabad, was the other.
"The infant was brought dead to the hospital by her father. We also registered a brought-dead case of a 7-year-old girl from Ghaziabad earlier in the week," said Rakesh Kumar, chief medical superintendent, MMG District Hospital.
Officials said other suspected cases include that of Jai Prakash, a 65-year-old man from Bihar's Munger who had fainted and showed signs of hypertension. Other fatalities were city residents: Kanij (40, Vijayanagar), Bhushan Sharma (52, Indira Colony), Gulab (30, Meerut Road), Nandkishore (60), Hemanti Devi (51) and Prahlad Gupta (35, Goshala Phatak).
TOI had reported on Wednesday about emergency departments and OPDs across NCR seeing an uptick in patients with heat-related illnesses.
A third doctor at MMG Hospital said they were almost out of beds at the emergency ward till Wednesday, but the situation improved marginally as temperatures dropped on Thursday.
Though there is a set of guidelines to confirm a heat-related death, medically confirming such fatalities can be tricky.
According to govt's criteria, a person is considered to have died of heatstroke when heat directly contributes to death or when a pre-existing ailment is exacerbated by heat stress. If not confirmed by an autopsy, a heatstroke death can be declared if officials have information about other conditions such as ambient temperature and exposure to heat at the time that the person fell ill.
Dr Amit Vikram, also an additional CMO, said a committee has been formed by the health department and the district hospital to investigate heatstroke deaths.
"Based on autopsy reports, further decisions will be taken. In the past few days, at least 28 bodies were sent for post-mortem examination. Normally, this figure remains below ten in the district," he said.