Delhi blast: RML Hospital kept cops, kin away to save lives

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Faced with massive casualties in the Delhi High Court blast, the city hospital where most of the injured were admitted, decided to keep patients out of bounds from police and relatives so that there was no delay in providing treatment to them.

Unlike the routine practice, doctors identified all blast victims as ‘unknown’ without trying to get details from them irrespective of the nature of the injury. They also deliberately refused access to relatives and did not allow police to carry out paper work till patients were ‘fit to talk’, Dr Sunil Saxena, chief medical officer, Ram Manohar Lohia hospital said.

Saxena said, “This new method was deliberately designed in order to save patients' lives. We had decided to consider all patients as unknown and not waste time in identifying them. As soon as any patient was brought in they were administered tetanus vaccine and we put a white band on their hand.”

“Relatives and police were not allowed to meet the victims till the victim was fit to talk. This had earned us the ire of the relatives but this was deliberately done to save lives."

While nine victims were brought dead, two succumbed to injuries during treatment. A total of 57 blast victims were brought to the hospital.

This time no doctor, who was dealing with patients, was with the VIPs when they visited the hospital. Only the medical superintendent and the CMO took them round the premises.

Nearly 70 doctors and over 100 paramedics were roped in to manage all the 57 patients who were brought in.