- Doctors at a community health centre suspected she had a heat attack and attempted CPR for 90 minutes
- She was referred to a hospital in Sikar but did not survive despite emergency treatment
- Prachi had mild cold symptoms recently but appeared healthy at school before the incident occurred
Prachi Kumawat was just nine years old, studying in Class 4 in Sikar's Danta town. But in a bizarre turn of events, the seemingly healthy girl sat down for lunch during break time on Tuesday morning, only to open her tiffin and fall unconscious.
Teachers rushed to her aid and took her to the nearest community health centre. The doctors there said they tried their best to revive her. She had no pulse, her blood pressure had fallen, and she was breathless - showing symptoms of a cardiac arrest .
The family took her to a bigger hospital in Sikar, but she did not make it.
Prachi was absent from school for the last two-three days as she had a slight cold, the principal of Adarsh Vidya Mandir School, Nand Kishore Tiwari, told NDTV.
When she came to school on Monday, she appeared to be in good health and also took part in morning prayers and assembly, before she fell unconscious during lunch hour.
"The school staff and teachers brought the nine-year-old girl to us. She was unconscious and gasping and was having difficulty breathing. There was no BP pulse and her heart was not beating. We started CPR, gave her oxygen and emergency drugs, along with injection and drip," Dr Subhash Verma, who attended to Prachi at the community health centre in Danta, told NDTV.
"We did our best to revive her, but then realising her condition was not getting better, we called an ambulance and referred her to a hospital in Sikar. If there was a delay in bringing a patient, people should immediately give CPR. It is a rare case to have this in children. Sometimes, there could be a congenital heart disease or disturbance in electrical impulse, and parents may not have noticed them. But it should be investigated," Dr Verma said.
The devastated family took her home for the last rites. They did not carry out an autopsy.
The doctor in charge at the community health centre, Dr RK Jangid, told NDTV they tried to revive her for almost an-hour-and-a half.
"Prima facie it appeared to be a heart attack and she also responded to the heart treatment that we were giving her like CPR and oxygen and drugs. She revived and that's why we put her in an ambulance and sent her to the district hospital in Sikar," Dr Jangid said.
"You cannot establish definitively that she died of a heart attack without a post-mortem. She definitely appeared to be suffering from a cardiac arrest. It's possible that she had a congenital heart disease that was never discovered and could have been aggravated all of a sudden due to some other condition," the doctor said.
In her last video recorded in school, Prachi was seen smiling and introducing herself and her class credentials before walking away.
Family sources told NDTV Prachi never reported any serious symptoms and her sudden death has left them shocked.
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