The number of patients coming in with fire cracker related injuries to eye hospitals in the city went up from around 40 on Tuesday to more than 75 on Wednesday.
This is just the second day of the Diwali festival where fire crackers are an important ritual for many people.
In the past three days, Narayana Nethralaya attended to 50 fire cracker related eye injury cases. Four cases required surgery. Suresh, 42, a resident of HAL ruptured his right eyeball and was brought in late at night on Tuesday.
Varun, a 22-year-old from Kamakshipalya was injured when a fire cracker hit one of his eyes while he was walking by.
Dr Bhujang Shetty, chairman, Narayana Nethralaya told Deccan Chronicle that of the 50 odd cases brought to the hospital, four were severe injuries of ruptured eyeballs.
“We operated on Suresh and Varun on Wednesday morning. We cleaned up and corrected the eye ball rupture, but they are still under observation, and chances are very less that they can get back their
eyesight,” Dr Shetty said.
Twelve cases of eye injury came in to Minto Ophthalmic Hospital, three requiring surgery. Doctors operating on them say that they cannot guarantee they will get their vision back.
Dr Arun Samprathi, chairman, Samprathi Eye Hosptal said, “We have had four cases. One of them was of six-year-old Abhinav who had to undergo surgery because both his corneas were affected by cracker particles. Compared to previous years, the cases that we have received are not that severe.”
Of the five cases that were received at Rangalakshmi Nethralaya, one was of six-year-old Madan whose right eye was hit by a butterfly cracker. He had to undergo surgery on Wednesday morning.