On the rainy morning of August 26, the front courtyard of District Women Hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati district was crowded with politicians, reporters and bystanders. Amid them stood 30-year-old Swapnil Borde. His bottle-green shirt hung limp with sweat, while his red-rimmed eyes brimmed with tears.He is the father of one of the three newborns who died after a fire broke out in the four-storey Special Newborn Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) on the third floor of the maternity hospital around 3.15 a.m. on August 24. Thirty-six babies were rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals, according to Amravati District Collector Ashish Yerekar. Two sustained burn injuries, says Amol Narote, medical superintendent of the government-run super-speciality hospital. Preliminary investigations indicate that a ventilator sparked the fire.
Also Read : Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar fire: 58 rescued, including nine newborns in blaze at hospitalSwapnil’s newborn was of low weight and had breathing issues, so was put on a ventilator two days before the fire.
Swapnil Borde lost his newborn baby in the Amravati hospital fire.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini
