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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Fatal Negligence

Newborns dying in a fire inside a government hospital is a devastating indictment of a system that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable patients. The Amravati District Women’s Hospital tragedy, where a blaze killed three infants, joins a long list of preventable institutional failures. Thirty-nine babies were inside the three-compartment facility when the fire erupted after a ventilator in the neonatal unit caught fire. Thirty-six were eventually rescued. Parents and eyewitnesses have...

Fatal Negligence

Newborns dying in a fire inside a government hospital is a devastating indictment of a system that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable patients. The Amravati District Women’s Hospital tragedy, where a blaze killed three infants, joins a long list of preventable institutional failures. Thirty-nine babies were inside the three-compartment facility when the fire erupted after a ventilator in the neonatal unit caught fire. Thirty-six were eventually rescued. Parents and eyewitnesses have alleged that the fire alarms did not sound and the automatic sprinklers failed to activate even as the district administration has said the hospital underwent regular fire audits and had applied for this year’s audit. An audit is meaningful only if it establishes that equipment works when lives depend on it. Maharashtra has already witnessed the deadly consequences of fire-safety failures in public hospitals. In 2021, eleven Covid-19 patients died in a fire at the Ahmednagar district hospital even though a fire audit conducted months earlier had recommended a firefighting system. The Amravati tragedy demands more than the familiar ritual of a high-level inquiry, compensation and promises of “strictest action”. The announcement of ex gratia payments cannot compensate parents who have lost a child they had barely begun to know. The investigation must establish not merely what ignited the fire, but why it was allowed to become fatal. Was the ventilator properly maintained? Were electrical and medical devices routinely inspected? Did alarms function? Were sprinklers operational? Was the NICU appropriately located and equipped for evacuation? Were staff trained and drills conducted? And most importantly, who was responsible for ensuring that every safeguard worked? There is another troubling detail: the neonatal unit was reportedly housed on the third floor, rather than at ground level, and questions have arisen over whether the unit was part of the building’s original plan. The state has built an elaborate architecture of laws and child-protection standards which seldom matches the situation on ground. Whether in government hospitals, schools or anganwadis, safety has become a box to be ticked rather than a responsibility to be lived. The most vulnerable children are consequently left dependent not on systems, but on the vigilance and heroism of individual staff members. That is an appalling way to run the childcare infrastructure of one India’s most developed states. A NICU is perhaps the worst possible place for institutional complacency: its patients are immobile, medically dependent and extraordinarily vulnerable to smoke, heat and even brief disruption of life-support equipment. The government must ensure that the Amravati deaths do not become another entry in the grim ledger of hospital tragedies followed by inquiries, outrage and forgetting. The real test will be whether the state can prevent the next newborn from dying in a hospital that was supposed to save him.

‘No need to panic and flee’

Pune based tourist currently staying in a hotel in Srinagar says life is normal in rest of Kashmir

Mumbai: With reports of tourists panicking and fleeing Kashmir with the most viable flight available are pouring in, tourists who are in Kashmir right now paint a different picture of the current situation in the valley. Speaking to The Perfect Voice, Kalpana Chavan who travelled to Kashmir last week as a part of the itinerary of a travel company called Vihar travels is currently residing in a hotel in Srinagar. Chavan said that life is absolutely normal in Kashmir.


A narrow escape

Interestingly, Chavan had left Pahalgam along with the group for Gulmarg at 2 pm on April 22, Tuesday, exactly half an hour before the attack took place. She heaved a sigh of relief while being sympathetic towards those who went through the nightmare that the Baisaran valley was a part of their itinerary same time on April 21, just a day before the attack took place. Chavan said, “Only one of our group members went to Baisaran valley on the afternoon of Monday, a day prior to the attack. Others were children and mostly senior citizens. They were not keen to venture the trek or horse ride, so we all stayed back at the hotel. Next day we left Pahalgam, and within an hour we got the news of the attack.”


Chavan who is on the tour at the moment has 32 tourists in the group including her says that schools, markets, sightseeing, everything is functioning smoothly as usual. Chavan says, “No need to panic and start fleeing because a terror attack can happen in any part of the country. Security is tight, there is patrolling every 100 metres. We went to Gulmarg, did our sight seeing as per plan. We went to the market for shopping. We played cricket. I don’t see a reason to head back. Although the crowd has decreased, but it’s not deserted.”


Locals fear economic setback

Chavan says ladies are freely visiting independently and shopping at the malls and there is absolutely no need to worry. However, local residents for first time seem angry about the attack, specifically because their income is completely based on tourism and the attack on tourists is a major set back for them. “We have visited shops at almost all the locations planned in the itinerary. All the salesmen, shop owners have been expressing their anguish about the attack. They said that terrorist attacks pose a direct threat to their source of income and jeopardise their livelihood”, said Chavan.


Chavan and her group will be returning back to Pune day on Saturday after covering all the sight-seeing spots as per schedule.

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