A teacher complained of breathlessness while correcting ICSE (Class X) Bengali answer scripts in a school and died on the way to the hospital on Monday afternoon, said officials of the educational institute.

Munmun Laha, a teacher at Anglo-Arabic Secondary School in central Calcutta, was on duty to evaluate answer scripts at The Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society School, one of the centres for the evaluation of ICSE Bengali papers.

“The teacher felt unwell and complained of breathlessness. She was taken to the school infirmary and given oxygen support before being taken to a hospital but she did not survive,” said an official of The Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society School.

Laha was close to 60 years.

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts the ICSE and the ISC exams, has been informed about the teacher’s demise.

“The evaluation centre informed us about the death of the teacher. It is an unfortunate incident,” said Joseph Emmanuel, chief executive and secretary, CISCE.

The evaluation of the answer scripts of both ICSE and ISC (Class XII) board papers is underway. The ICSE exams will end on March 27 and ISC on April 5.

A doctor said workplaces should have some basic equipment to be able to handle health emergencies.

“There should be a pulse oximeter and a blood pressure monitoring machine at a workplace,” said cardiologist Debdatta Bhattacharyya.

A person who is capable of checking pulse rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation level should also be there, the doctor said.

“Oxygen saturation below 90, pulse rate above 100 to 120 and very low or very high blood pressure are alarming signs. The person should immediately be taken to a hospital without any delay.”

A video consultation can be done with a doctor but it is imperative to provide some information about the patient, Bhattacharyya said.

“The doctor at the other end has to be given some basic physiological measurements. The doctor can see the patient and get an impression whether the patient is perspiring or has fainted. But someone has to do the physiological measurements and report the parameters even in a video consultation,” he said.