New Delhi:
Doctors attending on radiation exposure patients at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi have given up hope after the death of one of the patients.
Rajender, 35, a worker at a shop in Mayapuri scrap market, died at AIIMS on Monday. He was shifted there on April 13 from the DDU hospital, where he was initially admitted.
"We have given up hope on other patients. It's only a wait and watch situation," says the doctors treating the radiation exposure patients.
"After one patient's death yesterday, all other patients are very depressed, we are now counselling them," the doctors added.
"There is hardly any literature on how to deal with radiation patients, that's our handicap. Cancer of the thyroid and blood pose serious danger for these patients," the doctors further said.
Four other radiation exposure patients are still admitted in AIIMS, while Deepak Jain, the owner of the scrap shop from where radioactive material Cobalt-60 was recovered, is at Apollo Hospital. Another patient Ajay Jain is undergoing treatment at Army Research and Referral Hospital.
Ten sources of Cobalt-60 had been found in the Mayapuri scrap market earlier this month and eight persons were hospitalised. One of them has been discharged.
Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of cobalt, which is a hard, lustrous, grey metal. It is used in cancer therapy machines and other medical equipment.