Volunteers brave smoke to rescue 7 at SCB

Bhubaneswar: Three volunteers, Sudhir Kumar Mallick, Chandan Munda and Sritam Rout, who were deployed at the Trauma Care ICU on Sunday night, immediately rushed to the ICU after hearing about the fire incident at around 2.40 am on Monday.

They were volunteers of Sahay, an NGO engaged by the hospital to help patients and their kin.They saw heavy smoke inside the Trauma Care ICU, and started evacuating the ICU patients with the help of nursing officers and attendants. They rescued around 7 patients. During this process, they got injured too.Sudhir, 35, of Cuttack, said he, along with his friends, was on duty at the ground floor of the Trauma Care building.

“After getting a call from hospital staff, we went to the first floor and entered the ICU. With the help of nursing officers and other hospital staff, we rescued the patients,” he added.He said the smoke was so thick that they could not inhale properly inside the ICU. “After shifting 3 patients, I could not go to the ICU for the fourth patient as I could not walk properly under the influence of heavy smoke. I felt suffocated due to the smoke and stayed outside the ICU,” he added.

Chandan Munda, 22, of Keonjhar district, said it took more than 1 hour to rescue the patients from the ICU complex. Later, they were shifted to other ICUs near the building. “Police and fire services personnel also helped us in the work,” he added.Sritam, 24, from Cuttack, got unconscious as he became asphyxiated while shifting the patients. He fell ill at the end of his rescue effort. “We three tried to rescue 7 patients from the ICU. We could not see clearly inside the ICU due to the heavy smoke,” he added. He, along with the other two, was admitted to the hospital and then discharged after a few hours when they felt better.