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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.

Widow shows husband’s blood-stained clothes to CM

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis meets family members of Santosh Jagdale in Pune.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis meets family members of Santosh Jagdale in Pune.

Mumbai/Pune: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called on the grieving and still terrorized family members of two Punekars – Santosh Jagdale and his brother-in-law Kaustubh Ganbote at their homes this evening.

 

They were among the ill-fated 26 victims of the dastardly terror attacks in Pahalgam’s famed ‘Mini-Switzerland’ destination, chief access to which is by a bumpy pony-ride.

 

A grim Fadnavis and others arrived here and met both the bereaved families individually at their homes and offered his condolences to the surviving kin and other family members, as a large number of locals also quietly gathered on the roads outside amid tight police security.

 

The grieving Sangeeta Ganbote showed Fadnavis the blood-stained clothes last worn by her husband Kaustubh when he fell to the terror bullets.

 

Fadnavis, along with Minister of State for Urban Development Madhuri Misal and Pune Bharatiya Janata Party chief Dheeraj Ghate silently viewed the clothes with folded hands.

 

Trying to control her tears, Sangeeta Ganbote said in a choking voice that when they heard the first bullet, they were told it was probably some wild animal, but moments later there was heavy firing that scared them and other tourists.

 

“We had seen many check-posts and soldiers everywhere en route, but there was no security in Pahalgam,” she told the CM, who gave her a patient ear.

 

Visit to Jagdale

The CM also visited the Jagdale family where he and others offered their condolences to Santosh Jagdale’s wife Pragati and their daughter Asawari.

 

Tears welling up again, the mother-daughter recounted how a veritable mountain of tragedy crashed on their normal lives in that verdant green meadow on April 22 afternoon.

 

Yesterday, the Jagdale family had shared with the media how they were shattered on various fronts by the sudden loss of Santosh Jagdale.

 

“My father was such a nice and friendly person, easily mingling with even strangers… Yet he met with such a cruel fate… Everything happened before our eyes,” Asawari said, wiping her tears as Pragati held on to her.

 

Pragati Jagdale had appealed for financial help from the state government and a suitable job opportunity for Asawari, as the family attempted to bring their life back on track.

 

Possible help

After calling on the two families today, Fadnavis assured in a media interaction that the government will extend all possible assistance to the families/survivors of all the six deceased victims from Maharashtra, comprising two from Pune, three from Thane and one from Raigad.

 

Since the April 22 tragedy, both the families have been barraged with media-calls and visits from all over the country and even abroad.

 

Besides there has been an unending stream of condolence visits by leaders of local and state political parties, social and community heads plus shaken ordinary citizens dropping in to share the grief of the two families.

 

Nadda meets family members of victim

Pune: BJP president J P Nadda on Saturday met the family of Pahalgam terror attack victim Santosh Jagdale here.


The Union Minister met the Jagdale family at their residence in Karve Nagar and then headed to meet the kin of Kaustubh Ganbote, another city resident killed in the April 22 attack, in Kondhwa area.


Jagdale and Ganbote were among the 26 persons, mostly tourists, who were killed by terrorists at Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam in Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon.


Earlier in the day, Nadda offered prayers at the famous Dagdusheth Ganapati temple in the city. Talking to reporters there, he said India will give a befitting reply to those responsible for the terror attack. -PTI


Face legal action: CM to overstaying Pakistanis

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday reiterated that Pakistani nationals who overstay after the revocation of their visas will face legal action, a crackdown launched post the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists, died.


He made the statement at an event in Pune after he met the kin of two of the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. The state has so far identified 5,000 Pakistani nationals, out of which a 1,000 who are here on short-term visas are to be deported, a minister said on Saturday.


Minister of state for Home Yogesh Kadam said there could be 4,000 long term visas belonging to those who have come to the state for work and other reasons.


“According to my estimate there could be 4,000 long term visas of which 1,000 are the SAARC visa, those who have come to the state for film work, medical ground, journalism, personal work,” Kadam said.

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