New Delhi: The Delhi government has ordered an inquiry into the death of the 17-year-old Aakriti Bhatia who succumbed to an asthma attack during school hours three days ago.
"An enquiry was ordered into the incident on Wednesday night. The report will be submitted within three days," a senior education department official told sources on Thursday.
Aakriti, a Class 12 student of Modern School Vasant Vihar in South Delhi, had suffered an asthma attack in school on Monday and died on the way to the hospital.
Her parents and students have blamed school authorities, who have denied allegations of negligence. IANS
1 comment:
It seems school has done the best of what is expected by any first aid centre manned by paramedical staff (not manned by doctor). It is rare for an asthma attack to "start" & end fatally within an hour or so. But exceptions always do occur. But given the history of the child being a known asthmatic, the child must have been somewhat moderately sick, as is common in case of many astmatics who are not under proper control with appropriate medications. But it is common for astmatics with moderate sickness to pull on their usual activities without recognising the potential risks . So it is highly possible that the child was somewhat ill when she left home in the morning and may not be under appropriate medication for her severity of symptoms. Hence along with post mortem report, it is essential to have the child's prvious medical records and also the views of the child's regular doctor and when she attended the clinic last etc,before assigning any negligence to school.
Ultimately it seems the school has done good effort, and as they do not commonly face such situations, there is can be a possibility of some delay in reacting to any emergency, but in this particular case it seems fairly enough has been done.
Here it is very important, whether the child had similar severe attack in the past and when ,and whether the parents informed any such previous severe attack to the school authorities or not,and what measures are to be taken by the school in case she develops breathlessness?
I heard some one in TV asking why the school did not have a nebuliser. If the parents felt that his child might have a serious asthmatic attack, they could have given her a portable nebuliser available with a battery back up, and which hardly costs 5000-6000 Rupees and if affordable by parents.
It is not expected for the schools to have fullfledged medical facilities. Presence of a nurse and O2 are of course not heard in any of the large schools in India.
But if the school has charged any fee towards emergency service by any doctor or any ambulance service, then they will be guilty if they dont provide the same.
I feel we shuld definitely take lessons from this incident and equip our schools in a better way:
1. To have a doctor and dispensary/ambulance with basic medical facilities wherever affordable by school and the parents. But we should understand that these facility may not be enough, as some times we need to do some life saving procedures and there may be necessity of life saving equipments, which is out of the scope of the dispensary and a single doctor.
2. To have a empanelled list of doctors of the nearby vicinity, who can drop in immediately in case of emergency. With clear instructions on whom to contact next, if one doctor is not available.
3. To have a list of ambulance services available in the area.
4. The responsibilty of the medical treatments should be entrusted on few of the teachers, by forming a medical response unit and they should receive Basic Life Support courses offerd by many of the health care centres.
Of course always more can be done by us all as a community as a whole.
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