NEW DELHI — The children complained that the free lunch at their state school — rice, beans, potato curry and soy balls — tasted odd. The cook gave it a taste, too. Within half an hour they all began to suffer severe stomach pains followed by vomiting and diarrhea, and within hours at least 22 of the children were dead and dozens of others remained hospitalized, said officials in the northeastern state of Bihar. By nightfall on Wednesday, as angry protests broke out, officials said they believed they had found the cause: cooking oil stored in a container formerly used for insecticides. {...}
While it is still not entirely clear what happened in the village of Dharmasati Gandawa in Bihar’s Saran district, some element of cronyism may have been involved. As news of the tragedy spread, the school’s principal, who had bought the cooking oil from a store owned by her husband, disappeared and has not been seen since, officials said. {...} But the episode also laid bare the almost complete failure of the state medical system to deal effectively with the crisis. Parents recounted nightmarish tales of sickness and desperate efforts to find medical care in facilities that were rapidly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of children affected.
{A father of a little boy age } 5, said he raced to the school after a neighbor told him something was wrong there. “I saw my son walking towards home, and I brought him back home quickly and took my bike and rushed him to the health center,” stated {the boy's father } in a telephone interview. During the trip, he started throwing up. They arrived at the nearby primary health center and found it mobbed with children and families.
There was only one doctor, and he began pleading with parents to take their children to the district government hospital{; therefore, } instead took his son to a nearby private clinic, which was similarly overrun with patients and panicked parents. By then, {the child} was suffering near-constant vomiting and diarrhea and was beginning to lose consciousness,{...} The doctor (the vast majority of health care practitioners in India have no formal training whatsoever) injected the boy with something and insisted that he be taken to the government hospital. Instead, {the father} rushed to another nearby private clinic, which was also overrun. A government ambulance appeared, but there was no room for ... {a private vehicle was flagged down. They set off for the hospital, but after a few miles the child died His father's arms at around 4 p.m.}
...The local police opened an investigation into the episode and were continuing the search for the school’s principal, Abhijit Sinha, the district’s chief civil servant, said in a phone interview.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/world/as...
Posted By: Jen Fad
Thursday, July 18th 2013 at 8:36AM
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