A second-year student of Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences sustained burn injuries on her face while working at the laboratory. However, the director of the institute was unapologetic and put the blame squarely on the ?mistake? of the student and said the students need to ?educated?.
The incident occurred when Manpreet Kaur was working on a spirit lamp in the lab. Hardly had she lit the lamp that it burst, burning her face, including her eyebrows, eyelashes and cheeks. Though she was given medical care, there was no emergency kit present in the lab.
The students who were under fear after this incident communicated their concerns to the director of the institute for using outdated tools and apparatus for experiments, and said those that should be used are lying defunct in the labs.
Also, the absence of emergency kits in the labs was brought to the notice of the authorities, the students of second year told Newsline.
When Newsline questioned the authorities about this, they said it is not possible to keep an emergency kit in each lab. ?We have one emergency kit in each of the eight clinics, but it is certainly impossible to keep it in each lab,? said Director Dr Krishan Gauba. There are nine labs in the entire institute.
?The spirit lamps should be used carefully as these burst very often. Burners, which are a safer option, cannot be used as there cannot be a constant supply of gas,? Dr Gauba added.
He further said that supply to the gas burners had run out, but stocks had been replenished on Friday. But he harped on the point that students need to be educated about the use of spirit lamps.