“Get ready, we are going home,” Dattu Narwade, a 65-year-old pneumonia patient, told his wife on Tuesday, before he was shifted to the ICU. On Thursday, Narwade become the 10th victim of the fire that broke out at the ESIC Hospital in Marol on December 17.
Shifted to ICU
Narwade’s condition worsened following smoke inhalation and he died of acute respiratory failure at the Holy Spirit Hospital in Andheri.
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“He was on oxygen in ESIC as well,” said Sister Sneha Joseph, executive director of Holy Spirit Hospital. “He went into bronchospasm on Tuesday and was shifted to the ICU,” she added. Narwade was the sole breadwinner of the family. Narwade was cremated on Thursday and relatives and neighbours gathered at his 200-square feet house in Bhim Nagar at Asalpha in Ghatkopar.
Bayna (60) said her husband had been admitted to the ESIC Hospital for breathlessness on December 11. “Even though he had trouble breathing, he was perfectly fine. He told relatives who visited him that he would return home soon. We were hoping that he would be discharged soon.”
On December 17, Bayna was with Narwade in the ward when the hospital staff told them to take cover from the smoke as a fire had started on the premises. She said, “I covered his mouth with a wet cloth and we ran to the operation theatre, where I think a surgery was being conducted. I kept rubbing his chest, but the smoke engulfed the room and my husband was completely out of breath.”
Firemen soon came to the couple’s rescue and tried to evacuate them using a rope or a ladder. When Bayna briefed them about her husband’s condition, they placed Narwade on a makeshift cradle of bedsheets. The firemen then carried Bayna on their shoulders and led the couple out of the building through the staircase. They were moved to Holy Spirit Hospital in an ambulance.
‘Had weak lungs’
Sister Sneha said, “He was suffering from pneumonia and had tuberculosis around eight years ago. He had weak lungs and was on oxygen in ESIC as well. We administered antibiotics through IV fluids and put him on a ventilator. The cause of death is pneumonia with septic shock.”
Rukmini, Bayna’s sister-in-law, said, “Our mother-in-law is going to be heartbroken. He was her only child who was alive. The other two had died in succession in the past two years.” The mother-in-law, aged over 100, travelled with relatives from their village in Nanded, but could not make it before the cremation.
A native of Nanded, Narwade worked as a turner-fitter in a private company in MIDC. He had retired at 60, but his company gave him an extension. The family had lost the eldest son 14 years ago. The middle son is mentally challenged and the youngest is married with two children. “Even when he was admitted, he would ask his colleagues about work. They told him, you recover first,” said Puja, the daughter-in-law.
Unaware of compensation
Bayna said she has herself suffered a great deal owing to smoke inhalation. She said she did not seek treatment at Holy Spirit Hospital because she did not want to leave her husband’s side. Numbed by grief , the family remains oblivious to the arrests made by the police in the case and the compensation amount declared by the government for the families of victims of the fire.