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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.

Speedboat driver's stunt ended in mid-sea tragedy: survivor

  • PTI
  • Dec 20, 2024
  • 2 min read
Mumbai coast

Mumbai: The driver of the Navy speedboat that collided with a ferry packed with passengers on way to a tourist site off the Mumbai coast was in a "playful mood" and was "showing off", said a survivor who lost his aunt in the crash.


The survivor, Gautam Gupta, on Thursday recounted the moments leading up to the horrific speedboat-ferry collision on Wednesday afternoon that claimed the lives of 14 individuals, including Navy personnel.


The ferry was on its way to Elephanta Island, which has a collection of ancient caves, from the Gateway of India in south Mumbai when it sank off the city coast after the collision.


Gupta, a vegetable vendor from Nalasopara in adjoining Palghar district, was on the ferry 'Neel Kamal' with his aunt and relatives who had travelled to Mumbai to attend his wedding last week.


"I met my aunt after many years. She came for my wedding, and I took her for sightseeing and a ferry ride in the sea. I had no idea it would be the last day of her life," said a distressed Gupta.


Gupta, contesting the Navy's claim of "engine failure" in the speedboat leading to the crash, described the vessel's driver as someone who was "showing off."


He said many passengers, including himself, were busy recording videos of the speedboat as the driver zig-zagged through the waters. "It felt like a display," Gupta said.


As they headed towards Elephanta Island, he said the speedboat approached with 5 to 6 people on board.


"The driver was in a playful mood, zig-zagging through the waters. Suddenly, he turned the speedboat and headed directly towards us. He must have thought he could pass by our ferry narrowly, but his stunt ended in tragedy," Gupta said. Initially, Gupta did not grasp the gravity of the situation.


"One occupant from the speedboat was thrown onto our ferry. We assumed our ferry was safe and that no damage had occurred. But soon, the ferry began to sink," he said.


Four-year-old girl, pregnant woman among three injured

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said three persons injured in the boat tragedy off Mumbai coast includes a four-year-old girl and an eight months pregnant woman.


Making a statement in the Lower House of the state legislature, he said the third injured is a Navy personnel and his condition is serious.

"The condition of the four-year-old girl and the pregnant woman is stable," he said.


The driver of the naval speed boat and other concerned have been booked under clause 106 (1) (causing death by negligence), 125 (a), 125 (b) (rash or negligent acts that put human life or personal safety at risk), 282 (whoever navigates any vessel in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life), 324 (3), 324 (5) (mischief causing damage to property) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), he added.


"The rescue operations are still continuing. Out of the 110 passengers, 96 have been rescued," Pawar said.

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