Chandigarh Police: Health issues rattle UT police

CHANDIGARH: Repeated advice of Chandigarh police's health wing for police personnel to maintain their fitness seems to be falling on deaf ears. In the second such incident for the past six months, a head constable of UT police Balbir Singh, 44, died due to medical complications on Sunday. He was suffering from diabetes and hypertension and was admitted in Government Multispecialty Hospital, Sector 16, on Saturday after he complained of acute stomach ache following his duty at Sector 41.

Sector-39 SHO Inspector Charanjit Singh said doctors referred Balbir Singh to PGI when his condition worsened, but he was declared brought dead there.

The head constable was one of the among 300 police personnel, who were found suffering from ailments like diabetes, hypertension and obesity during a health checkup camp that police department organized.
''At that camp, doctors had found the blood sugar in the head constable's body to be more than 180 and he was also advised to work on lowering his blood pressure,'' a colleague of the deceased said.
His relatives said Balbir weighed 82kg and his height was 5'7" and doctors had advised him to reduce that to 67kg. City-based physician Dr Kamal Modi said, ''The blood sugar level of a normal person should be 110 on an empty stomach and around 160 after having food.''

A police official said that Balbir was admitted in GMH-16 twice after he developed health problems.
On January 14, former SHO of Sector 31, inspector Bakhsish Singh, died after suffering a massive heart attack during his duty. Three months after that SHO of PS 17, Inspector Hardit Singh had a paralysis attack on May 17 and he was instructed to take rest for at least a year.