Cops foil Hinduvta activists' bid to attack young couple in Deralakatte lodge

Bengaluru, May 31: The coronavirus related fatalities in Karnataka rose to 49 with the death of a 47-year-old woman while 141 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Saturday taking the infection tally to 2,922, Karnataka minister S Suresh Kumar said.

Among the fresh cases, 90 are inter-state passengers, he told reporters.

The deceased woman from Bidar was admitted on May 24 and died on May 28 at a designated hospital in Bidar, Kumar, minister for primary and secondary education and spokesperson for Covid-19 in the state, said.

The woman was diagnosed with influenza like illness with a history of paralysis and was bed-ridden besides having hypertension and convulsions, Kumar said.

According to him, the total cases include 997 discharges, 1,874 active cases, 49 Covid-19 deaths and two non-Covid related deaths.

Of the total active cases, 15 are in the ICU, he added.

The new cases comprise 33 in Bengaluru, 18 in Yadagir, 14 in Dakshina Kannada, 13 each in Udupi and Hassan, 11 in Vijayapura, 10 in Bidar, six in Shivamogga, four each in Davangere and Haveri, three in Kolar, two each in Kalaburagi, Mysuru, Uttara Kannada, Dharwad, and one each in Belagavi, Chitradurga, Tumakuru and Bengaluru Rural, the health department said in its bulletin.

The minister said the government has issued an order regarding relaxation of curfew on Sundays.

According to the order issued by Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, there will not be any curfew on Sundays throughout the day following requests from people.

As per the previous order, curfew was from 7 am to 7 pm on Sundays.

New Delhi, Jun 25: The Central government submitted before the Supreme Court on Thursday that the remaining class 10 and 12 CBSE exams, which were earlier rescheduled to be held between July 1 to July 15 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been cancelled.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), informed a three-judge bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar that the remaining class 10 and 12 CBSE exams scheduled to be held in July have been cancelled.

Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have conveyed their inability to conduct the examinations, Mehta said.

The bench asked whether class 12 students were being given the option to either get marks on the internal assessment basis or appear for an exam later, to which the Mehta responded in the affirmative.

CBSE exams for class 10 students stand cancelled, Mehta said and added that they don't have to give any examinations. Mehta further submitted that as soon as conditions are conducive, CBSE exams for class 12 students, who opt for it, will be conducted.

The apex court was hearing a petition, filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra, seeking directions to cancel the remaining CBSE exams in view of the health risk of coronavirus infection. The apex court was also hearing a similar petition regarding the ICSE exams.

Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), through its counsel Jaideep Gupta, also informed the court that it will also cancel the class 10 and 12 board exams. However, it submitted that it does not agree to give the option to students to give the exam later.

Bengaluru, Jan 21: A private hospital in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, on Tuesday claimed that it has successfully performed a live liver transplant on a Jehovah's Witness from Nigeria, by not using blood or blood products, in order to protect the patient's religious beliefs.

It is said that Jehovah's Witnesses are followers of a Christian faith that prohibits the use of blood or blood products during their treatment. Gehojadak (37), a Jehovah's Witness follower, had developed decompensated liver disease and visited more than three countries seeking treatment over the last four years but was turned away by most doctors due to the highly risky nature of surgery, Aster CMI Hospital said.

The surgery was challenging compared to a normal liver transplant because in order to protect the patient's religious beliefs, the medical team could not use blood or blood products (Fresh frozen plasma, Cryoprecipitate, Platelets etc), it said in a release, adding that very few such surgeries have been successfully conducted worldwide.

The patient's brother was the donor, the hospital said, adding, without a liver transplant, Gehojadak's chances of survival were less than 10 per cent over the next two years. A team of liver specialists from the Hospital thoroughly reviewed the patient's medical history before recommending a bloodless liver transplant and charted out a feasible pathway to make the surgery a success.

"This transplant was especially challenging as we did not have the safety net (of using blood) even if the patient's life was at risk due to their advance directive. We have performed other non-transplant liver surgeries in Jehovah's Witnesses and this gave us the confidence to take on Gehojadak's transplant," Dr Rajiv Lochan, Consultant Liver Transplant Surgeon, said.

The critical surgery took a 12-hour period to complete where two teams of specialists with close to 25 doctors including anaesthetists, intensivists worked in absolute sync with each other and Gehojadak finally received a life-saving liver transplant, the Hospital said. In a period of two weeks, the patient and his brother were fit enough to go home and were discharged from the hospital.

"Even if their haemoglobin levels dropped to life-threatening levels, the patients were clear that they would not accept a blood transfusion. Keeping the limitations in mind, the most effective treatment path was planned, and we spent close to two months preparing the patients for surgery," Arun V, Consultant Anesthesiologist said. The hospital arranged customised artificial products like synthetic drug molecules, to conduct a bloodless liver transplant, he added.