Prayer of 12 years snuffed out in smoke-filled ICU

Prayer of 12 years snuffed out in smoke-filled ICU

Jamal Ayub & Sudeept Mishra TNN

Bhopal:11.11.2021

Raees and Irfana Ahmed’s 12-year prayer for a child was answered last week. They named him Rahil. After eight days of hospitalization, the baby was scheduled for discharge on Tuesday. The house was decked up for the homecoming.

A discharge sheet signed on Tuesday – but it was a death certificate. “I did not let my wife see our baby’s body. I could identify him but his skin had blackened due to the smoke that engulfed the ward after the fire,” said Raees, struggling to get each word out.

Raees is from Nasrullah Ganj in Sehore district, some 100 km from Bhopal. His first born was referred to the state’s largest tertiary care hospital in the state capital with breathing difficulties.

His mother was with the baby till around 8.30pm. The couple was excited and had made plans for the child’s homecoming. Then, disaster struck.

A fire broke out in the paediatric ICU, and the attendants and patients’ kin were ordered to move out. They resisted, pleading to be allowed to take their children to safety. But the security staff would hear none of it. Firefighting and rescue were to be left to the professionals.

Rahil’s maternal uncle, Rashid, told TOI that when the fire erupted, he had gone home to have dinner. “Irfana called me about the fire in the baby ward. I rushed back and went into the hospital building. It was dark and I tried to find my way with the help of a mobile torchlight. Only 4-5 hospital staff were present, along with seven to eight family members of the babies. Together, we rescued seven to eight babies and shifted them to another ward,” said Rashid.

Raees was all cut up on Tuesday as he waited to collect the little bundle at the mortuary. “My baby was going to be discharged. I should have been allowed to rescue him. After 12 years, when the Almighty finally answered our prayers for a child, he was snatched from us,” ,” he sobbed. “We are in deep shock,” said Rashid.

A newborn baby being shifted to another hospital after fire in Kamala Nehru hospital on Tuesday