That night, Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed and Dr. Gandhe were on Emergency duty at Hamidia hospital — Bhopal's medical college hospital and the city's biggest medical facility. It was around 1.15 AM that the first patient trudged in, complaining of severe irritation in the eyes. Soon, more began trickling in and it was not long before the trickle turned into a torrent. Naturally, the two doctors were unnerved. They contacted Dr. Loya, the Chief Medical officer of the UCC plant and sought to know the nature of the gas that had leaked and also its antidote. Dr. Loya's reply was that the gas was not poisonous at all and that the patients should be advised to cover their eyes with wet towels. When this failed to work, Dr. Loya was again contacted and he again repeated his advice. However, the doctors on duty decided to admit the patients to the Intensive Care Unit and keep them under observation. By 3 AM, the number of patients had swelled to 4500 and the Hamidia hospital staff was convinced that it had disaster at hand. Moreover, now the patients were not only complaining of irritation in eyes. They were also having difficulty in breathing. Dr. Mushtaq and Dr. Gandhe too developed the same symptoms. Their eyes were burning and they were gasping for breath.

On December 15, a team of three American doctors were dispatched to Bhopal by the UCC. They held a press conference, which soon turned into a bitter wordy duel between them and the local doctors. The local doctors alleged that traces of Phosgene gas had been found in the lungs of the dead gas victims. But UCC doctors stubbornly kept on denying that the exposure to the gas may have any long-term effects on the patients.

The UCC doctors, thus, not only misled the medical community of Bhopal about the long-term effects of the MIC but also refused to part with any details as to which medicines should be used to treat the patients. After some days, there were reports that injections of Sodium Thiosulphate — now known to be an effective antidote to cyanide poisoning — were helping the patients. A few hundred patients were injected with Sodium Thiosulphate and this correspondent is personally witness to the fact that it gave substantial relief to them. However, a couple of days later, the administration of Sodium Thiosulphate was stopped following instructions from an unidentified authority in Delhi.

The doctors of Hamidia hospital, later, revealed that 500 vials of Sodium Thiosulphate injections were dispatched to Bhopal from USA a few days after the disaster and they were administered to top officials and influential persons. And that the injections had improved their condition.

Thus, those Indian and American doctors should also be punished who did not reveal the anti-dote to MIC and so also those who recommended or instructed that the administration of Sodium Thiosulphate injections be stopped. Shouldn't the American doctors of the UCC, who did not reveal the extent of lethality of MIC and also the treatment for exposure to it, be extradited and made to face the law. For it is unimaginable that they might not have been in the know of these details.

The Indian Council for Medical Research had launched several projects to identify the best course of treatment for the gas victims. However, all those projects were abandoned midway. Those responsible for this decision should also be identified and punished.

When, on December 16, 1984, the MIC still left in the tanks of the plant was released in the atmosphere, the residents of Bhopal were advised to observe several precautions. Interestingly, the residents of the area around UCC's similar plant in West Virginia in the USA were aware of these precautions much before. They had been told to always keep water stored in their houses and in the event of an accident, shut all the doors and windows tightly and hang wet clothes on them. If these simple precautions were known to the residents of Bhopal, they would not have panicked and ran away from their houses on the fateful night, with the cloud of the gas chasing them. The more they ran, the heavier they breathed and more and more MIC entered their lungs.

Wasn't it the duty of the administrative officials to have directed the factory management to publicise in the settlements around the factory, the steps to be taken in case of an accident? Industrial units manufacturing dangerous or poisonous substances like Pesticides are subject to regular statutory inspections by authorities. Why were such instructions not issued during these inspections? Can those who did not perform their duties in this respect escape from their culpability?

The gas had started leaking from the MIC unit at around 11 AM and it was some time before it reached the colonies near the plant. Had the UCC officials alerted the administration in time, the residents could have been told what to do and may be, the number of deaths would have been much, much less. Should these persons go unpunished? (IPA Service)