RIMS ceiling breaks down, patient hurt
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 18 2013:
Portions of the first floor ceiling of Bhagwanlal Panti special ward, RIMS gave way today in room number 7 injuring a patient who was a few hours away from undergoing surgical operation.
Bhagwanlal Panti special ward was donated by his son and grandchildren in his name and it has 10 rooms.
A portion of the ceiling of room number 7 broke down at around 5.30 this morning.
Concrete materials of the ceiling fell on a bed on which a patient was waiting for her operation time.
The falling debris hit the patient ripping her left eyebrow apart from causing injuries on different parts of the body.
The ripped eyebrow was stitched before undergoing operation.
Later she was shifted to Deluxe B-2 .
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On learning about the ceiling collapse, RIMS Director Sekharjit came and inspected the room.
According to RIMS Medical Superintendent Th Arun and officials of RIMS Engineering Cell, the building being used as special ward is more than 30 years old.
The ceiling collapsed as the binding properties of cement and sand got diminished over the years.
It has not been even one year since the building was converted as a special ward.
Earlier, the building was used as a students' hostel.
When the building was transformed as a special ward, no renovation was done except for re-painting, said one RIMS official.
Although RIMS has its own engineering cell, none of the engineers could foresee the likelihood of today's ceiling collapse.
Some engineers of the cell told The Sangai Express that they do not have the capacity to undertake regular maintenance work even though the building is very old.
The cell has no instrument to foresee any such collapse or break down.
Medical Superintendent Prof Ch Arun said that they could have taken precautionary had they known that the ceiling of room no 7 was about to break down.
Taking serious note of the ceiling collapse, an emergency meeting of top ranking RIMS officials was held today.
The meeting decided not to allot upper floor rooms of the building to patients.
It further decided to re-locate patients currently occupying upper floor rooms of the building to the special ward inaugurated recently.
RIMS was established in 1972 as a medical college.
Many of the buildings constructed at the time of establishment are still in use.
The meeting further decided to make an assessment of the old buildings, said Prof Ch Arun.