Surat mock drill goes wrong,two fall ill

The Surat district collector is probing a mock drill carried out last at the Essar Steel plant at Hazira after two workers playing victims of a chlorine gas leak took ill,apparently because they were treated like actual victims at the New Civil Hospital in Surat

The Surat district collector is probing a mock drill carried out Thursday last at the Essar Steel plant at Hazira after two workers playing victims of a chlorine gas leak took ill,apparently because they were treated like actual victims at the New Civil Hospital in Surat.

The drill began Thursday morning when security staff at Essar were warned about a chlorine gas leak from a tanker and the guard pressed the disaster alarm,prompting workers to run out. Four workers were declared affected. While two of them were shifted to Essars hospital at Hazira,the other two were taken to Surats New Civil Hospital,where the staff were reportedly unaware of the mock drill.

The collector coordinated the drill with the involvement of the police,security staff at the company and officials of the disaster management team.

Shalu Yadav 29 and Vishal Patel 30,who were taken to New Civil Hospital,were given primary treatment like intravenous glucose in the presence of chief medical officer Omkar Chaudhary and other staff,including 12 residents doctors,who were also present.

Sources at the NCH said a medico-legal case file was also prepared,treating them as disaster victims.

However,the paramedics claimed they were unaware that the patients were part of a mock drill and were not really affected by gas leak.

Once Yadav and Patel went home,they started vomitting and complained of diarrhoea following which they had to be taken to a private hospital for treatment.

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Surat district collector A J Shah called a meeting of Essar and industrial safety officials on Monday to find out what went wrong and where. As part of the inquiry,a physician from the state governments Industrial Safety and Health department visited the New Civil Hospital and checked the records,only to find that Yadav and Patel were given voveran and ringers lactate solution.

We are looking into it and are coordinating with the medical officers of New Civil hospital to find out where the mistake happened, Shah said.