Indore crisis: Doctors recall peculiar cases, families say they barely had time to respond

In the case of 60-year-old Urmila Yadav — one of the victims, as per the Health Department’s affidavit to the High Court — a medical certificate from the Indore Cloth Market Hospital says she died a natural death on December 28 at 11:05 am. The medical certificate said the immediate cause of death was cardio-respiratory arrest. Septicemia with shock and AGE (acute gastroenteritis) were mentioned as the underlying antecedent cause.

Nandlal Pal (70), another of the victims mentioned by the Health Department, died of sudden cardiac respiratory arrest, according to medical records furnished by Dr Abhyuday Verma at Verma Nursing Home. “He died while I was writing his discharge application. He had responded well to antibiotics, his blood reports and electrolytes were normal,” Verma said.

Excavation work at the pipeline

As per the medical records, Nandlal’s blood pressure was 100/60 at 12 pm on December 28. On the day he died, it was recorded at 90/50. He was administered CPR and waited for 30 minutes for an ambulance before he was pronounced dead on December 30.

Dr Verma, who treated scores of patients from the area, said of Nandlal, “He was old and may have had an underlying heart condition, which his family was not clear about. But this was a strange case. He had recovered from diarrhoea and suddenly collapsed. Many patients we treated had watery stool, but for some reason, the wards were not stinking. Many patients also did not have a fever, which was very strange. They also did not respond well to antibiotics for diarrhoea. They eventually responded positively to doxycycline. The older patients were the ones at risk.”

The medical certificate of Geeta Bai Dhruvkar (68), furnished by the Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences, said she died on January 2 at 8.32 am due to natural causes.

She was not among those counted by the Health Department in its list of the dead, but she qualified for the Rs 2 lakh compensation given by the Indore administration. Her medical certificate mentions the immediate cause of death as sepsis with septic shock. AGE with dehydration, Lobar pneumonia, pleural effusion and bronchial asthma have been listed as underlying antecedent causes.

Officials conduct inspection of drains and pipelines following a diarrhoea outbreak caused by contaminated water, at Bhagirathpura area, in Indore. (PTI)

Dr Nitin Ojha, one of the doctors deployed to monitor the health crisis, explained, “In some of the cases where patients had died, they were older people with co-morbidities.”

Contamination source a mystery

Indore municipal corporation officials said they have not yet been able to definitively ascertain the source of contamination in the water, which allegedly led to over 1,000 people falling ill in Bhagirathpura. As reported by The Indian Express, they are now looking beyond a police chowki toilet that was suspected as the source.

The administration is currently focusing on borewells that have been connected illegally to the water pipelines. Around 60 such connections have been removed by officials.

Indore Collector Shivam Verma on Sunday released the result of a water-borne pathogen test conducted by the Aurobindo Medical College, which said the samples were negative for several bacterial and viral pathogens.

“Analysis of all five water samples showed negative results for the targeted bacterial pathogens (E. coli 0157, Generic E. coli, Vibrio cholerae, and Salmonella) and viral pathogens (Rotavirus and Enterovirus). Further confirmation of water quality may be obtained through culture-based microbiological analysis and routine physicochemical testing,” the lab report read.

Indore Municipal Corporation workers conduct a cleanliness drive. (PTI Photo)

‘Every time he drank water, he vomited’

The families of the patients saw the deadly symptoms play out in front of their eyes, as their loved ones perished following severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea. Many died before reaching hospitals — some in ambulances and private vehicles just metres from their homes.

Urmila Yadav (60) began vomiting on December 27. Her family took her to the Cloth Market Hospital, but within 24 hours, she was dead. “The treatment cost Rs 40,000. I did not get my wife back,” said Algu Ram Yadav, her husband.

On December 28, Tara Kori (65) woke her son Anil at 2 am. “Something is happening,” she told him. Her son thought she had to use the bathroom.

Tara couldn’t sit, and soon, the diarrhoea and vomiting began. Anil changed her clothes, cleaned the mess and put her to bed. He gave her medicine for diarrhoea. The following morning, by 8 am, her health deteriorated.

“There was no strength in me to take her to the hospital. She died within an hour. Her last words to me were: Beta sab mushkil hai (son, everything is difficult),” Anil said.

Seema Prajapat (50) fell sick on December 29. The sudden burst of vomiting and diarrhoea took a toll on her, and she barely made it out of her lane on the way to the hospital when she died. “We did not even have 10 minutes to take her to the hospital. I cleaned up my mother, who was covered in vomit. She died 10 minutes after setting out for the hospital,” her son, Arun Prajapat, said.

Residents affected by the contaminated water at Bhagirathpura in Indore on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

Manjula (74) was making dinner for guests at 10.30 pm on December 29 when she fell ill. She had packed some gulab jamun that she had cooked for her daughter and handed it over after the vomiting began.

Her husband, Digambar, called the Nagar Nigam team the next morning. They called an ambulance for her, but she died in it before reaching a hospital.

Santosh Bigoliya, a 60-year-old security guard, was fit enough to ride a bicycle to work every day. On December 22, he suddenly fell ill. His daughter-in-law, Aarti, rushed back from work and found him in deteriorating condition.

“He was wrapped in vomit and diarrhoea. We gave him medicines prescribed at a local clinic. Every time he drank water, he vomited. We did not have the money to take him to MY Hospital (Indore’s premier government hospital), and by the time we managed to find the resources, he died,” Aarti said.

The youngest victim was six-month-old Avyan Sahu, who came down with diarrhoea-like symptoms on December 26. “We called a local child specialist and took him there. He gave us regular tablets and ORS. Then we brought him back home,” said Sunil, his father. By December 29, Avyan’s condition deteriorated further, and the family rushed him to the CHC Apollo hospital, where he died. The family suspect that he fell ill due to local water being mixed in the store-bought milk that he consumed.