Lucknow/Jhansi:

Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero’s role by saving several babies.

Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others’ help.

“I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread,” Megha James said.

Eleven babies died in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.

Faced with an enormous blaze, Megha James’s mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.

“My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working,” she told PTI Videos.

Megha James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.

“There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies,” she said.

Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, Megha James said. “It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it.” Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised Megha James’s valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.

“The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha’s salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside,” she said.

Nalini Sood said Megha James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.

“The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying,” she said.

Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.

“In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.

“In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation,” he said.

“This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives,” Dr Anshul Jain said.

A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ten children were killed in a fire that broke out at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh on Friday evening. The casualties may go up, said an official.

The fire, possibly due to a short circuit, broke out in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Maharani Laxmibai Medical College in Jhansi. Doctors and medical staff were seen evacuating patients by breaking the windows of the ward filled with smoke before fire brigade officials reached the spot.

“As per the staff present in the ward, the fire broke out around 10.35 pm. Thirty-seven children have been safely rescued. The fire broke out in one of the two units of the children’s ward possibly due to a short circuit. The children who were in the outer part of the NICU were rescued, along with some of those who were in the interior part. We have formed a committee to probe the cause of the fire. While most of the children were rescued, as per initial information, 10 children were killed in the accident,” said Avinash Kumar, district magistrate of Jhansi. Six fire engines are present at the spot, he added.

Visuals from outside the medical college showed panic-struck patients and their caretakers, even as a large number of police personnel aided rescue and relief measures. Inside the affected ward, several charred medical equipment were seen.

Heartbreaking visuals showed relatives wailing for the children who died in the accident. “My baby has burnt to death,” said a devastated woman who lost her child.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took note of the tragic accident and expressed his condolence to the families of the victims. “The death of children in an accident that occurred in the NICU of the medical college located in Jhansi district is extremely sad and heartbreaking. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to provide salvation to the departed souls and speedy recovery to the injured,” he wrote in a post on X.

Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister and the minister of medical education of Uttar Pradesh, and the principal secretary of health have left for Jhansi to assess the ground situation.