Mumbai Toxic Liquor Tragedy: More Lives Could Have Been Saved, Say Doctors

Mumbai: The Malvani toxic liquor tragedy in Mumbai claimed 102 lives. But of the 140 who had been rushed to hospitals after consuming the toxic alcohol, many more lives could have been saved, according to doctors and victims' families, who say a lack of resources and the juggling of the victims between different hospitals made the situation worse.

32-year-old Dashrath Kale was among those who had consumed the toxic liquor. He told NDTV that he had to wait hours to receive treatment. "First I went to Jankalyan. It is a big hospital in our area. They didn't do anything there and asked us to go to Shatabdi. Then we waited for an hour and a half at Shatabdi but nothing happened there so we were brought to Sion Hospital," he said.

Hospital records say Mr Kale had consumed alcohol at 7 am on June 18. He reached Sion Hospital at 2:41 am on June 19th, 20 hours after he drank the toxic liquor.

Others who were lucky enough to survive too recount similar tales. But the delay would prove fatal for some.

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"All were quiet bad, but luckily we could salvage two of them. One was really, really bad, and he had come very late," said Dr Suleman Merchant, dean of the Sion Hospital.

To make matters worse, the dialysis centre at the Shatabdi, where a majority of the victims were taken first, had shut at 7 pm. This meant that a number of them had to rush to other hospitals. Out of the nearly 140 victims rushed to the Shatabdi Hospital, 61 died. About 60 others were transferred to other hospitals.

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"If they were brought to us early or taken to any of the tertiary health care centres where dialysis is provided, lives could have been saved," Yojana Gokhale, professor of medicine at Sion Hospital, told NDTV.

Doctors say dialysis is required to flush out toxic methanol from the body and a patient must receive the treatment within the first few hours.