Cuttack, Nov 29: Around 44 people were affected by the chlorine which leaked from a pump house of the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) unit on the SCB Medical College and Hospital campus here Wednesday, officials said.
Those who came in contact with the gas, including patients, doctors, medical students, attendants and a few fire brigade personnel, experienced nausea, chest pain and vomiting. Many of them are hospitalised. The condition of six persons is believed to be serious. They have been shifted to ICU, hospital sources said.
Medicine department senior professor CBK Mohanty and Pulmonary department professor HK Sethi have been asked to supervise the treatment of those affected.
Collector Sushant Mohapatra, who rushed to the hospital after the mishap, said all those who became ill due to the gas leak were hospitalised and 25 of them were later discharged.
“An inquiry will be conducted to find the cause of the gas leak,” Mohapatra said, adding that chlorine was stored for purifying water.
Fire brigade personnel, who rushed to stop the gas leak, said at least three gas cylinders were kept inside the pump house and that compressed gas leaked from a damaged cylinder. The damaged cylinder was immediately removed to a deserted place in a nearby river islet. “The chlorine cylinders were procured five years ago,” said a source.
PHEO Executive Engineer Sushant Kumar Ghadei said they had asked the Ganjam-based supplier of the gas to take away old cylinders from SCBMCH premises. But, the supplier had failed to do so.
It is learnt that SCBMCH administrative officer Pratap Mishra and senior assistant Bipin Sahu too were taken ill after inhaling the leaked gas. Both were given primary treatment.
Sources said the inmates of a gents’ hostel on the hospital premises were the first to notice the gas leak at 4 pm.
“I felt pain in my eyes and could not breathe properly,” said Bubu Swain, an employee of the of the medical college gents’ hostel.
Attendant Kalandi Mahalik said he narrowly escaped death after coming in contact with chlorine. (Post News Network)
