Major hospitals in Delhi recorded over 250 cases of burn injuries including firecracker related injuries this Diwali which is much above their expectations, said doctors.

Dr PS Bhandari, Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the Lok Nayak hospital said, “This year we had anticipated that the cases will go down on Diwali as lot of efforts have been made to sensitise the public. But then people started pouring in since last evening which continued till Thursday morning.”

The hospital recorded 21 burn injuries out of which five were admitted, he added.

The cases were reported majorly in Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital and Lok Nayak (LN) hospital.

The highest number of cases was recorded in centre run Safdarjung Hospital. The hospital attended as much as 104 cases between Wednesday and Thursday out of which 22 were admitted to the Hospital.

“While 22 patients were admitted, rest of the patients were treated as outpatients,” said Dr Shalabh Kumar, Professor and Consultant, Plastic Surgery Department, Safdarjung Hospital. Of the total 104 patients, 26 were children, he added.

The doctor had earlier said that the hospital records around 200 cases of burn injuries during Deepawali.

According to Dr VK Tiwari, Medical Superintendent of RML Hospital, around 25 patients were treated at the hospital out of which 6 patients suffered more than 20 per cent burns and had to be admitted to the hospital.

Around 35 patients were sent back home after first aid at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.  The Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital received 45 patients for bodily injuries from fire-related incidents and saw two admissions this Diwali. Most of the burn injuries were mainly related to hands and eyes.

The Dr RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at the AIIMS also received patients who had sustained burns in eyes or other ocular injuries during Diwali festivities.