Cramps, dehydration minor hiccups for marathon runners

Around 2,500 runners suffered from minor injuries like cramps, dehydration, sprain and exhaustion as Mumbai played host to its annual Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. Of the 42,000 participants who ran amidst loud cheering, music and motivation from volunteers, there were 11 who were seriously dehydrated and had to be hospitalised.

"This year medical cases were significantly less as compared to the last few years. Also, there was no cardiac case," said Dr Vijay D'Silva, Medical Director of Asian Heart Institute (AHI) that was the official medical partner for the event. The entire medical team, including the volunteers, comprised 500 members.

The injured were rushed to Bombay, Lilavati, Hinduja and Jaslok hospital. Dr D'Silva attributed the lack of any serious injuries to better qualification standards set for the runners, early start to the race, comfortable atmospheric temperature compared to last two years and well trained runners.

Aurangabad's Deputy Commissioner of Police Nisar Tamboli, 47, was one of the participants who collapsed and was rushed to Jaslok Hospital. On admission, there were signs of short-term memory loss and disorientation. However, he recovered after he was given intravenous fliuds.

Dr Shoaib Padaria, senior Cardiologist at Jaslok hospital, who is overseeing the case said, "With the memory of a leading Mumbai doctor losing his life due to a heart attack while training for the marathon still fresh in our minds, we have to be extremely vigilant and alert in managing such cases."

There were 11 medical aid stations along the route, two medical base camps with combined 60 beds and 11 cardiac ambulances.

The team also had seven 'mobile medics' — doctors on motorbikes — for the entire route. All the cardiac patients managed to complete the marathon without any hiccup.