A child undergoes treatment at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Thursday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, July 18: Organophosphorous would die down but trauma will haunt the midday meal victims recuperating at Patna Medical College and Hospital.

Doctors treating the students of Gandaman Primary School said they would not have to face long-term effects of consuming organophosphorous. “Some pesticides and insecticides have long-term effects on the health but organophosphorous is not such kind of chemical,” said Nigam Prakash Narayan, the doctor in charge of the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) unit where 24 children and cook Manju Devi are undergoing treatment.

For Pano Devi, the school’s other cook, the only hope left was her daughter Nisha — undergoing treatment at the ICU of the PMCH paediatrics department. “My life has been destroyed,” said the woman, who had lost two sons, Rohit and Suman, in the Tuesday tragedy, before losing consciousness. “Nisha’s condition is critical,” Narayan said, adding that she was having breathing problems.

However, the condition of other children at the PMCH is improving. Punita Jaiswal, the health manager of the paediatrics department, said Manju Devi had been doing well also. “Today, she took breakfast but before that she had convulsions because many people, including politicians, repeatedly talked to her even during treatment. Now we are not allowing anyone to come near her,” said Jaiswal.

PMCH superintendent Amar Kant Jha Amar said the hospital was leaving no stone unturned in the treatment of children.

About post-mortem report, Jha said: “Post-mortem has been done but it cannot be trusted completely. The viscera report, which is expected to come within 10-15 days, would actually establish the reason of poisoning,” he said, adding the details of the post-mortem report could not be divulged at present.

Uma Shankar Mishra, the grandfather of Khushi (7), admitted at the PMCH, said: “We don’t know who has poisoned the food and with what motive but such incidents will surely make us to think time and again whether to send our children again to any government school.” Khushi’s condition is reported to be stable.