Holi fallout: Eye injuries abound Mumbai

Nitin Bhosale, 22, will dread the Holi celebrations for the rest of his life. The engineer nearly lost vision after friends took the spirit of revelry a bit too far and rubbed colour into his eyes. He was taken to KEM hospital after complaining of loss of sight. Five hours and some intense treatment later, his vision was back.

“A delay in treatment could have resulted in loss of vision. We kept washing his eyes with saline water and used antibiotics,” said Dr Rahul Sharma, from KEM’s ophthalmology department.

Doctors at the city’s hospitals kept busy throughout the day as patients with eye irritations kept trickling in. There were 150 cases, mostly to do with eyes, fractures and skin irritation, and two deaths reported on the day. “All the colours had toxic material. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries,” said Sharma.

Of the total 110 cases, nearly 30% were of eye irritation, said Dr Arjun Ahuja, head of ophthalmology, KEM hospital. “Most of the cases are related to the abrasion in the eye, where the superficial layer of the eye peel off. It is not serious, but it hurts a lot. It takes 24-48 hours to heal,” he said.

Most other cases were related to fractures. KEM hospital had 50 such cases, JJ hospital 12; and Sion hospital one. Vineet Jadhav, 15, a resident of Macchimar colony, drowned in the sea while taking bath after playing Holi. Prashant Gurav, 18, from Charkop, drowned at Aksa beach in Malad. He had gone swimming in the sea to celebrate Holi with four friends.