Monster Heat Wave Sees Crowded Delhi Hospitals, Many Patients are Delirious

New Delhi:  Hospitals are struggling to cope with an influx of victims of the blistering heat wave that has claimed nearly 1,500 lives in just over a week.

Nearly 1,300 people have been killed in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

In Delhi, the top temperature has soared to 45 degrees Celsius.  “Hospitals are overflowing with heatstroke victims,” said Ajay Lekhi, president of the Delhi Medical Association.

“Patients are complaining of severe headache and dizziness. They are also showing symptoms of delirium,” he added, describing a common symptom of severe dehydration.

The surge in demand for electricity from air conditioners has led to power cuts in parts of Delhi, exacerbating the misery for residents of the capital.

Large queues formed outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the premier government-run hospital, where women clutched plastic water bottles as they tried to console crying babies, their heads wrapped in handkerchiefs against the blistering sun.

“Last night there was no electricity for nearly five hours,” said 31-year-old housewife Seema Sharma as she waited in line for her four-year-old son to be seen.

“You can imagine what we must have gone through. He just couldn’t sleep and kept on crying. Now he has fever as well,” she said.

State authorities have ordered that air coolers be installed in shelters for homeless people. Tens of thousands of people sleep in the streets with no protection from the sun.

“We think that these heat wave conditions will take another four to five days to subside,” said B P Yadav, director of the Indian Meteorological Department.

The monsoon is forecast to hit the southern state of Kerala towards the end of this month before sweeping across the country, but it will be weeks before the rains reach the arid plains.