Udaipur RAS officer Taru Surana dies of dengue

Jaipur: Udaipur Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officer Taru Surana died of dengue while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Chennai on Saturday.

Surana (42) was airlifted to Chennai after her health deteriorated.

Surana's younger brother Shubham said that she had been suffering from a fever since September 6 and was treated at home for a few days.

"On September 11, when Surana's health did not improve, she was taken to Geetanjali Hospital in the city. Surana was diagnosed with dengue and on September 13, she was admitted to Geetanjali Hospital," Shubham said.

He said that Surana's platelet count did not drop but she had persistent fever. When her health did not improve, she contacted the doctors of Chennai's MGM Hospital.

On September 18, the team of Chennai MGM reached Geetanjali Hospital, from where she was airlifted to Chennai the same day.

She was treated in Chennai for 17 days. Doctors said it was a rare case, because platelet count drops in dengue, whereas Surana's platelets were not so low.

After being treated for 17 days, she died at 6 a.m. during treatment.

Shubham said that her body will be brought from Chennai to Ahmedabad by flight at 7 p.m. From here, the body will be taken to Udaipur by ambulance. Her last rites will be performed on Sunday.

Surana who postgraduated in Sociology and passed NET, became the RAS officer in 2012.

She served as Assistant Collector in Rajsamand, SDM in Amet, Rajsamand, SDM in Gadhi, Banswara, SDM in Railmagra, Rajsamand, Deputy Director in Women and Child Development Department, Udaipur, amongst others.

This is the fourth death due to dengue in the state in the last eight days.

The other three who succumbed to the vector-borne disease were a government doctor from Jaipur, a nursing student from Kota and a businessman from Pali.