14-year-old Karnal girl dies of swine flu

Sun, Nov 1 05:22 AM

Class VII student Srishti was admitted in PGI on Friday; she died on Saturday afternoon

A 14-year-old school girl from Karnal died of swine flu at the PGI on Saturday. Srishti studied in Class VII in a school run by Nirmal Dham Trust in Model Town area of Karnal. She lived in the hostel.

Doctors at PGI said the girl arrived at the hospital in a critical condition late in the evening on Friday. She was reportedly put on life support system in the isolation ward.

"She had complete respiratory failure. Her throat swab sample was collected at PGI. But before the results came, she died around 3 pm," UT swine flu nodal officer H C Gera said.

According to health officials in Karnal, three weeks ago the girl had some skin problem, and the school sent her home. Around 10 days ago she returned, but now she had swine flu symptoms. The school again sent her home.

"Neither the school nor the family informed us. They continued treatment at a private clinic. And when her condition deteriorated, she was referred to PGI," Dr Charanjeet Chaudhary, Karnal swine flu nodal officer, told Newsline.

Karnal health officials reportedly came to know about the case from the UT Health department.

Her school, meanwhile, has been closed for seven days and the 35 hostellers have been screened. Dr Chaudhary said no samples had been collected from the hostel, as none of the students had flu-like symptoms.

Around 150 inmates of an old age home, which is in the same premises, have also been screened.

Srishti lived with her mother, maternal grandfather, grandmother and cousins at Hansi Road in Karnal. Around 14 people of her family, including some relatives living in Sector 23, Chandigarh, have been quarantined.

This is the third swine flu death in the tricity and second in Chandigarh. Last month, a 12-year-old school girl from Ambala had died at Chaitanya Hospital in Sector 44. After that, a 48-old-woman from Solan had died at Silver Oaks Hospital in Mohali.

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