Twenty-six new borns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) miraculously escaped after a major fire erupted at the Government General Hospital in Kalaburagi city on Wednesday afternoon. The air conditioners caught fire due to a suspected short circuit.
The incident took place during the lunch break, it is said. The presence of mind of the two male nurses and a medical attendant in the Dental wing in the hospital saved the day for the authorities.
The trio did not wait for instructions, rushed to the ward and started breaking the windows in the air-tight NICU ward, allowing the smoke, which had engulfed the room to escape and saved the lives of the infants.
Meanwhile, the staff nurses attached to the NICU and other wards also rushed to the ward to shift the new borns to the safety. The fire tenders which arrived soon after doused the fire.
The rescued infants have been shifted to the private hospitals, including the Basaveshwar Teaching and General Hospital, Sangameshwar Hospital and KBN General Hospital. The condition of all 26 infants is said to be stable.
Except for Fakirappa, a male nurse who broke the glass panes of the windows to allow the smoke to go billow out of the NICU, none of the other staff members suffered any injuries.
