Women docs save 9 patients from fire in Covid ward

Women docs save 9 patients from fire in Covid ward

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal:22.11.2020

Two women doctors led a courageous rescue mission to save nine Covid patients after a fire broke out in the ICU of a super speciality centre in Jayarogya Hospital in Gwalior on Saturday.

With lives depending on split-second decisions, doctors Nilima Singh and Nilima Tandon didn’t bother to pull on PPE suits and dashed in unprotected, shouting to their colleagues and other staff to join the rescue effort. In the end, those seconds mattered. A patient suffered minor burns before he could be rescued, but he is lucky to be alive. A doctor fainted, possibly from smoke inhalation, and has been hospitalised.

“The fire broke out in the fourth floor of the hospital, due to which nine patients were shifted to another ward on the second floor,” said collector Kaushalendra Vikram Singh. One of the rescued patients died during treatment a few hours later, not from the fire but Covid complications, said sources.

“Dr Nilima Singh and Dr Nilima Tandon rushed into the danger zone to save lives without a thought for their own. They didn’t even put on PPE kits,” said a senior administrative officer of the hospital.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia lauded the doctors’ bravery. “I salute them. They are real heroes,” he tweeted.

The fire brigade put out the blaze, Singh said, adding that a short circuit might have triggered it.