Spurious colour during the Holi celebrations continues to take lives in the city.
“Take me home” was the last words of 12-year-old Vicky Valmiki to his maternal grandmother Bharti Bagde before he died on Thursday night at Rajawadi Hospital.
His grandmother is still in shock that Vicky is no more.
Vicky, a resident of Kurla Railway Colony, was one of the 20 people who were admitted to various hospitals in the city after using spurious colour during the Holi celebrations.
Bharti said that though Vicky told his mother that he was feeling cold, she ignored till the other children were rushed to hospital. He was admitted to the Rajawadi Hospital at 5pm but the doctors got confused and he was not given the antidote that was given to Dharavi victims at LTMG Sion Hospital.
“He stays with me at Vikhroli most of the time as his school is closer. He came to Kurla to play Holi,” Bharti said. Vicky’s father Satish Kumar, who works in Byculla workshop, had gone to Lucknow on official work.
“He played till 11.30am. He came home, ate chicken and rice and slept. He complained of feeling cold but Lata ignored thinking it is because he played in water," said Bharti.
On admission, the doctors made him vomit. Police in the morning took the remaining colour samples and clothes. A senior official from Rajawadi Hospital said, “We have sent the samples of Vicky’s vital organs for chemical analysis. We will wait for the report.”
Apart from Hritik, Suman Ganeshan (15), the one who had bought the colour from Dharavi, is also serious and on ventilator at Byculla Railway Hospital. Rajawadi authorities claimed that the clinical presentation of the patients they got was different from the one admitted at LTMG Sion Hospital.
The on-duty doctors therefore didn’t give methylene blue, the antidote that was given to Sion Hospital victims.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been asked to conduct an investigation on the chemical used in the colour.
FDA commissioner Mahesh Zhagade said, “The government has given a mandate of two weeks to submit the report.
People from medical education and the FDA commissioner are members of the committee.”
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