The quiet lobby of the NICU hospital in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, on Sunday morning, was shaken by the piercing wail of Md. Anzaar, when he got to know that his infant daughter was not admitted in the child care unit here, but had been transferred to the GTB mortuary.
“They killed our daughter,” exclaimed Mr. Anzaar to his wife, Noorjahan Bibi, over a call.
Mr. Anzaar and Ms. Noorjahan are among the seven parents who lost their infants to the fire that broke out in the New Born Baby Care Hospital, in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, on Saturday night.
“They told me yesterday that my daughter is doing better and they will discharge her today,” said Mr. Anzaar.
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The daily wage labourer who embroiders clothes said that his daughter had been admitted at the unit after she developed an infection from dirty water. “Her platelet count was low, so I would get blood from a different centre and give it to the doctors here at New Born Baby Care Hospital, but the doctor told me yesterday that she had recovered and could be discharged,” he added.
The father of the deceased laments not bringing back his daughter from the hospital sooner.
“They would charge us close to ₹12,000 every day and yet failed to provide safety to my child. How can they store so many cylinders in a hospital, how could they abandon our children,” asked the resident of Bhajanpura.
He alleged that the hospital authorities had not informed them, and that he learnt about the unfortunate incident from the television, after which he rushed to the hospital and then the police station to know the whereabouts of his infant daughter.
As he proceeded towards the GTB mortuary where the rest of the six bodies of the infants were kept, he was quickly surrounded by other grieving parents.
One of them, Md. Asif, said, “My son had oxygen deficit, so he had to kept at the New Born Baby Care Hospital, but when I was visiting him on Saturday, they told me that he would be discharged on Sunday, I wish I had brought him home sooner.”
Meanwhile, Sitara Khatun, Mr. Asif’s wife, wept uncontrollably on the phone when she was informed about her child’s death, struggling to speak.
“We had admitted him there for him to get better, but they took all our money and killed him,” said Ms. Khatun.
Back in the east Delhi NICU hospital, Mithilesh Kumar and Richa Devi came running to the reception to inquire about their son.
The couple who had conceived twins, after being married for 15 years, were in tears as they learnt that their son was alive.
“We lost our infant girl, six days back, right after she was born due to the doctor’s negligence at Raj Hospital, if we had lost our infant boy, then we would have lost everything,” said Mr. Kumar.
Mr. Kumar’s and Ms. Devi’s son is not in danger. However, the child incurred few burn injuries and will be recommended a hearing test, to gauge if his hearing has been damaged due to the loud noise of the cylinders bursting.
In another corner of the lobby sat Madhu Raj, whose infant boy was admitted in the same hospital.
Mr. Raj’s wife had post delivery complications and was bedridden. While he was preparing a meal for her, around 9 a.m. he got to know about the incident.
“I have not yet informed my wife and will only tell her after I place the child in her lap,” said the painter, who hails from Ghazibad.
His son was a premature baby, hence had to be hospitalised in the Vivek Vihar hospital.
At present, five infants have survived the fire at the hospital, out of which one is in a ventilator, while seven infants lost their lives to the fire.
