Shimla, June 29: A 48-year-old chartered accountant from Mangaluru who had gone trekking to Himachal Pradesh died soon after completing the expedition on June 25. Trekkers who were with Chandrakanth Bhat said timely medical assistance at Reckong Peo, the headquarters of Kinnaur district in Himachal, could have saved his life. Bhat, from Puttur, was an avid trekker. He was part of a group of 28 trekkers, who had left for the Himalayan state on June 9. The group, including five from Puttur, reached the foothills of the Himalayas on June 15 and started the trek the next day.
The group returned to Reckong Peo on June 25 after a successful trek. That was when Bhat complained of chest pain. The trekkers rushed him to a hospital where doctors’ efforts to save him failed.
“If doctors and nursing staff had attended to Chandrakanth Bhat immediately without adhering to technicalities such as shift timings, Bhat perhaps could have been saved,” Narasimha Bhandary, member of the trekking group, alleged.
Dinesh Bhat, a member of Puttur Railway Yatrikara Sangha, said the Himachal government must be ready with emergency medical facilities since the state attracts tourists and trekkers by the thousand. Chandrakanth and his daughter Varsha had trekked the Himalayas and other regions across the world.
