Three days after escaping Bengaluru building collapse, Sanjana succumbs to burns 

BENGALURU: Three-year-old Sanjana, who had miraculously survived Monday’s building collapse in Ejipura, succumbed to burn injuries at Victoria Hospital on Thursday evening. She had suffered 60 per cent burns following a cylinder blast that had brought down the two-storey building. Sanjana had lost her parents - a pregnant mother Ashwini and father Saravana - in the incident.

Dr KT Ramesh, head of the department of plastic surgery and burns, Victoria Hospital, said that she had developed septicemia (bacteria infecting the bloodstream) since her burns were deep.

Forty-eight hours after she was admitted to the hospital’s Mahabodhi Burns Centre, her condition started deteriorating. “Patients admitted with deep burns initially seem okay. But the burn-related complications start developing much later. She started developing breathing problems on Thursday,” he told Express.

Sanjana’s aunt Asha who was looking after her was inconsolable. Her co-worker and family friend James Karthik said that though one of Sanjana’s eyes was swollen, she would open the other eye and recognise people by their voices. “Exerting her facial muscles caused her pain,” he said.