Six Sunstroke Deaths Confirmed In Rourkela; 22 Other Reports Awaited

Rourkela: A total of 35 suspected sunstroke deaths were reported in the steel city of Rourkela in the last 4 days, ADM and Rourkela Municipal Corporation commissioner Ashutosh Kulkarni informed on Sunday.

“While some were declared dead on arrival at the hospitals, other succumbed while undergoing treatment.” he told the media.

He further said that families of four deceased took the body without postmortem. “Of the remaining 31, we have received postmortem reports of 24, which confirmed that six among them had died of sunstroke. In 15 cases, the postmortem remained inconclusive and we are waiting for the viscera report,” he said.

In such cases as per the procedure, a joint enquiry by tehsildar and a medical officer is also conducted to ascertain the cause of the death, he added.

The ADM said that patient load in hospitals has decreased with the improvement in the weather conditions in the last two days and following awareness activities. “Around 33 patients were under treatment last evening and they are being discharged. No new cases have been reported at the OPD,” he added.

On Thursday, eight persons suffering from suspected heatstroke were pronounced received dead at Rourkela Government Hospital, while two more died during treatment. The deaths were reported between 1 pm and 8.30 pm. Ten patients in need of critical care were shifted to HTMCH on Thursday night.

By Friday, the toll rose to 16 with six more deaths being reported from these two hospitals. Almost 70 per cent of the victims, which included 10 women, were from Rourkela and the remaining from neighbouring Hathibari, Rajgangpur and Kutra.

On Saturday, the government informed that 96 cases of unnatural deaths were reported in summer this year and among them nine were confirmed to have died due to sunstroke. While 6 of 42 deaths reported till May 30 were due to sunstroke, another 3 heat-related deaths were among the 54 reported in the last 48 hours, the official release said.