Kashmir pellet injuries: Five moved to AIIMS to save their eyesight

This comes days after a three-member team of specialists from AIIMS had reached Srinagar on July 14 to look at the high number of pellet injuries in the ongoing protests in the Valley,

Four of the youths were airlifted and shifted to the eye casualty at Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences in AIIMS. Sources said the authorities had planned to airlift a fifth person but could not get the consent of the patient’s family.

The fifth patient — a 15-year-old boy from Kulgam district in south Kashmir — was brought to AIIMS by his family by road from a Srinagar hospital.

“They are under examination and will be hospitalised for further investigation of the injuries,” AIIMS spokesperson Dr Amit Gupta said. Gupta did not want any of the victims to be identified.

At the AIIMS eye casualty centre, the Class IX girl student from south Kashmir’s Shopian district was examined by Dr Deepak Agrawal, Professor of Neurosurgery at AIIMS. Dr Agrawal told The Sunday Express that the teen had a “punched-out defect” on her forehead. “It is a 13-day-old injury — almost the size of a one-rupee coin,” Agrawal said. “She also developed an infection and we should be able to conduct the surgery after three or four days.” Agrawal said the girl will also undergo plastic surgery on the forehead.

Another doctor accompanying Agrawal said, “We have not received the patient’s history but from experience, we can say the punched-out defect could be due removal of pellets (that possibly struck her forehead).”

In Srinagar, doctors at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital said the girl was one of the worst cases they had ever seen.

The teen boy from Kulgam district, admitted at AIIMS casualty centre with injuries on his left eye, was wounded while returning home after visiting a dentist in the district, his elder brother, who works as tourist guide in Himachal Pradesh, said. “There was curfew but he had severe pain due to a wisdom tooth, and had to consult a dentist,” the brother said.

Meanwhile, reacting to media reports about lack of equipment and infrastructure at SMHS Hospital, a division bench of J&K High Court today issued a direction to the state Director of Health Services and principal of Government Medical College, Srinagar: “Take a decision forthwith so as to enable the persons admitted for eye treatment to be treated without loss of time.”

The Union Health Ministry had sent the team of specialists from AIIMS to Srinagar on July 14 to inspect the patients and also advise whether there was a need to airlift patients. Doctors in Srinagar at the time had said there was no need to move the patients to Delhi.