This story is from November 22, 2016

Moms, babies in frantic run to safety

Moms, babies in frantic run to safety
As the fire breaks out minutes before the visiting hour, some patients scamper to safety.
KOLKATA: Time: 11am, Monday. A sixmonth-old had been wheeled into the operating theatre on the fifth floor of SSKM Hospital's Ronald Ross building for a plastic surgery. The operation had just been completed and the patient still under anaesthesia when the hospital staffers raised an alarm that a fire had broken out on the floor above.The surgical team pressed the panic button as they had to immediately neutralize the effect of anaesthesia with the help of drugs--naturally , it would have taken another 20 minutes--so that the infant could be evacuated to safety.
“It was the next best thing the surgeons could do.
The patient was unconscious and so, their task became difficult. They had to reverse the anaesthesia effect, revive the child's consciousness and take him to safety. Thankfully, the surgery was completed before the fire broke out,“ said head of the department of plastic surgery Bijoy Majumdar. He added that another patient had to be rushed out of the operation theatre in a similar fashion.
The sudden and rushed withdrawal from the operation theatre could have spelt risk for the patients, said doctors. “It takes time for the anaesthesia effect to recede. In this case, it had to be done with medicines, which is not healthy. But it was an emergency situation,“ said a doctor.
The fire broke out inside the underconstruction library on the sixth floor of Ronald Ross building and was first spotted by a security guard around 10.45am. Shortly , the fire started pumping smoke into the wards below that were chock-a-block with patients, their relatives, medical staff and visitors.The leaping flames and the accompanying cloud of dark smoke could be spotted from Vidyasagar Setu and even Maa flyover, prompting many to recall images of people jumping from Stephen Court to save their lives and those who died, inhaling carbon monoxide during the AMRI Hospital blaze.
Ishtiyq Ali Molla, who had stepped out to buy diapers for his new born son, rushed back into SSKM when he heard a commotion and alarming cries about a fire. “As I ran towards the building, I saw flames leaping out. Suddenly, scenes from Stephen Court and AMRI Hospitals flashed before my eyes. Before I could reach my family, I fervently prayed to God that they were safe,“ said Molla, a resident of Memari in Burdwan.
The fire spread such panic that several patients admitted to the gynaecology ward did not wait for help but ran out of the building, located opposite Ronald Ross Block. Not taking any chance, they scurried out of the hospital premises and took refuge on the campus of Gokhale Memorial Girls' College across the road. Bibha Gayen was one of them. Around 11am, she was nursing her three-day-old daughter when she heard a racket outside the gynaecology ward on the second floor of the building. Within seconds, everybody was running helter-skelter. “I did not know what to do. My mother had returned home and I was waiting for my brother to come when this happened. Completely at a loss, I picked up my child and followed a few other women from the ward who rushed out.Along with them, I took refuge at the college. Till now, no doctor has arrived to check if the babies are fine,“ said Gayen.
Close to 2pm, the mothers, along with their babies, were transported back to the hospital in an ambulance.
By then, the campus was a scene of chaos as close to 300 patients had to be evacuated to the academic building, around 200m from the spot of the fire.The presence of only a handful of nurses and ward boys and shortage of stretchers made it an even more difficult process. “ At times, we had to put three patients on one stretcher to carry them to safety,“ said a nurse in the burns ward. Due to lack of space, several patients were left on the floor or made to share a bed with others. “We do not have space to accommodate so many patients. I hope they do not contract infection from each other,“ said a senior doctor.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA