New Delhi
Sanjay Babu, a 45-year-old worker at a perfume factory in Mayapuri whose death is suspected to be heat-related, was living in a cramped room with a kitchen but only There was a fan and he worked in a factory in the middle. His family said the high temperatures were due to the use of large burners in the process.
He had come from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh a decade ago and was earning. ₹12,000 per month, with which he supported his wife and four children.
Babu is among the 40 people who are suspected to have died from the heat wave and were either brought or declared dead at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. Doctors at the hospital said post-mortem examinations were carried out on Thursday to determine the cause of death, but most of the dead had a body temperature of more than 105 degrees Celsius before they died. Indicates death from
Those suspected to have died due to the heat wave include factory workers and an auto-rickshaw driver who worked long hours in the scorching heat to earn a living.
Babu, his family and colleagues said eight to nine hours of work would be done in the factory. “We are facing intense heat inside the factory because that is the nature of perfume manufacturing. It is not easy to be in such conditions for eight to nine hours, especially for old people,” said Karambir Singh, a colleague of Babu's.
Babu's son-in-law, who did not want to be named, said: “His accommodation in the slum was a 10×10 room with one fan. He couldn't afford a cooler, forget an air conditioner.
Babu collapsed while taking a bath in a public washroom on Tuesday night and the police brought him to the hospital, his family said. Doctors told us that when he was brought to the hospital, his body temperature was 110 degrees Celsius. He was not breathing properly and his blood pressure was not stable,'' said the son-in-law.
Forty-eight-year-old Jitendra Yadav from Bihar, who worked in a plastic manufacturing factory in West Delhi's Tilak Vihar, also died under similar circumstances. Yadav is survived by his wife and two teenage sons, said his father Ram Parvesh Singh, 68, who came to collect his body.
Yadav's colleagues said working conditions have become too hot, especially amid rising temperatures. On Tuesday, his temperature rose to 107 degrees Celsius and he returned home. After that we took him to the hospital but he could not recover. He died on Wednesday,” said a 30-year-old colleague on condition of anonymity.
Yadav had a fan in his room and depended on neighbors for cold water, they said.
Another family waiting for the mortuary to collect the bodies was that of Gulzar Khurana, a 62-year-old auto-rickshaw driver who worked long hours in the sun. While waiting at an auto stand in Raghubir Nagar – where he also lived – he collapsed. “He had a cooler in his house but the heat outside can kill someone. We suspect he collapsed due to the heat,” Khurana's friend Jatin, 40, said.
A medical officer at the hospital's emergency unit, who did not want to be identified, said they were getting about 15-20 patients a day who were suffering from heat-related problems.
To give immediate relief to patients, the hospital has brought in a dedicated refrigerator for ice and saline. “After the first response, we send heatstroke patients to the medicine ward, which is reserved for them, and if they are more serious, they are sent to the Covid ward, which is vacant,” the officer said. It happens,” the officer said.