13-year-old suffocates to death due to LPG cylinder leak in Bengaluru

The boy and his 5-year-old brother, who is critical, were asleep at home at around 6am when the incident occurred.
13-year-old suffocates to death due to LPG cylinder leak in Bengaluru
13-year-old suffocates to death due to LPG cylinder leak in Bengaluru
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In a tragic incident, a 13-year-old boy died of asphyxiation due to a leak in the LPG cylinder in his Bengaluru house. The boy’s 5-year-old brother is currently critical and undergoing treatment.

The incident occurred on Friday morning after the children’s mother had locked the door and gone to work. 

According to TOI, Kalpana alias Kalavati, a widow from Nepal, who works as a domestic help and lives in Jyothinagar near HAL would lock her sons Sameer and Shasheer inside the house, before leaving for work at 6am everyday, as she felt it was the only way to keep them safe. Kalpana would return home by 8am and get her sons ready for school before heading to work again.

According to The Hindu, Kalpana’s neighbours heard her scream for help on Friday morning and ran inside to see what had happened. 

“When we ran inside the house, we saw Kalpana crying, sitting next to her sons. Sameer lay motionless, while Shasheer was breathing hard. We immediately summoned an ambulance. The ambulance staff declared Sameer dead. We shifted them to a nearby private hospital where doctors confirmed the death,” neighbours told TOI.

Sameer was a Class 5 student at the  government school in Narayanapura and Shasheer is in Class 1. While Sameer died due to asphyxiation, Shasheer is undergoing treatment at St John’s Hospital. 

According to Whitefield DCP, Abdul Ahad, Kalpana had an illegal LPG connection and would get the cylinder refilled from a shop near her house. “Preliminary investigation revealed Kalpana had turned off the cylinder knob. The gas somehow leaked and the two boys who were sleeping just 10 feet away fell unconscious,” DCP Abdul Ahad added. 

Police have booked a case under 304A (death due to negligence) against certain employees of the private gas agency, which had supplied the cylinder. Abdul Ahad said that the leak may have been caused as the cylinder was defective. 

“He may require ventilator because oxygen supply to his brain is reduced. Carbon Monoxide that has been absorbed through the lungs is serious, particularly in young children,” Dr Sanjay Lewin, Chief of Medical Services at St John’s, told The Hindu.

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