A nine-year-old girl in Rajasthan’s Sikar died of a heart attack while she was opening her lunch box at school, officials said Wednesday.
Prachi Kumawat, a student of class 4, died in the afternoon. Nand Kishore, principal of Adarsh Vidya Mandir in Danta, Sikar, said that, “It happened around 11 am Tuesday… She dropped her lunchbox and collapsed. We were all on school grounds at the time, so we rushed her to the hospital.”
Kishore said, “Students fainting is not new and kids usually recover once we give them some water. However, her situation was different. So, we took her to the Community Health Centre (CHC) which is just about 500 metres away. There, the medical staff took care of her and she initially seemed to have recovered.”
He said that CHC staff referred her to a hospital in Sikar and put her in a government ambulance. “However, she had an attack again, and this time doctors gave her injections and did whatever they could, and sent off the ambulance. We don’t know if she reached the hospital or not, but the ambulance left around 12:15 pm. At about 1:30 pm, we got to know that she had passed away,” the principal said.
“She was just a kid. She was smart and knew tables till 40. She was a cheerful and lively kid. Even if we used to scold her, she used to keep smiling,” Kishore said. Prachi’s last rites were performed at about 4 pm on Tuesday.
Dr R K Jangid, posted at Danta CHC, said that, “Prima facie, the child had a heart attack. She had sustained a sudden cardiac arrest in the school.” The doctor said while a post-mortem wasn’t conducted, the doctors at CHC concluded it was a heart attack and took measures for the same, which briefly improved her condition. “We gave her oxygen and did cardiac resuscitation. We then referred her to the Shri Kalyan (government) hospital in Sikar but she passed away before reaching the hospital.”
Dr Jangid said that the girl did not have congenital heart disease or a history of heart ailments. Principal Kishore said that Prachi’s father works at a private office in Gujarat.
