Jhansi: After fire broke out at Jhansi’s Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Uttar Pradesh on Friday night, nurse Megha James saved over a dozen babies with the help of other hospital staff. Eleven babies died in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the hospital.
The nurse narrated that she had gone to take a syringe when the fire broke out. She said that her footwear and salwar had caught fire during the rescue.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," Megha James recalled.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it." She said that she just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
James said that more children could have been saved if the electricity was not cut off. "There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
"It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Recalling the incident, Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood said, "The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside."
Megha James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college.
VIDEO | Fire breaks out at Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh; rescue operation underway. More details awaited. #Fire#Jhansifire(Source: Third Party)(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/Q5aZ9MiZMY
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 15, 2024
Purported visuals from the medical college showed panic-struck patients and their caretakers being evacuated, even as several police personnel aided rescue and relief measures.
(With inputs from PTI)