‘What happened to our daughter’

Bhubaneswar: The early morning fire at the trauma care centre of SCB Medical College and Hospital has left behind an irreparable loss and a haunting question for Krupasindhu Mallick of Bhadrak.His 11-year-old daughter, Kalyani Mallick, admitted to the paediatric ICU on the second floor of the trauma care centre, died hours after the blaze broke out, leading to the hurried evacuation of patients from the centre. While SCB claimed that the girl succumbed to her underlying health conditions, Mallick alleged that her death was due to negligence by nurses, who did not evacuate her on time.“My daughter was a thalassaemia patient and was admitted to the paediatric ICU here from Bhadrak district HQ hospital on March 15.

Her condition was stable, but she had tubes fixed to her nose and mouth when the fire broke out on the first floor on Sunday night,” said Mallick, a resident of Sahada Haripur in Bhadrak district. Along with Kalyani, there were three other children in the ICU.During the incident, Mallick’s wife, Sumati, was inside the paediatric ICU attending to her daughter, while he and his relatives were on the ground floor of the trauma centre.

Mallick heard that a fire had broken out on the first floor and rushed to the ICU to inform Sumati. “By then, nurses and other staff were evacuating children through the fire exit, while my daughter was still inside,” he said. Both Krupasindhu and Sumati were asked to vacate the building.Krupasindhu claimed that only after the fire was put off, a health staff member informed them that Kalyani had been shifted to the ICU in the New Medicine building.

Though the couple was informed that her condition was stable, they were not allowed to see her. At 3 pm, I was told by the nurses that Kalyani had died, Mallick said.On Tuesday morning, he submitted a complaint against the MCH administration at the Mangalabag police station. Alleging negligence on the part of the hospital administration, the couple demanded justice and Rs 25 lakh compensation that CM Mohan Charan Majhi announced for those killed in the trauma ICU blaze.

Although a post-mortem of the girl was conducted, the parents refused to accept her body and threatened to sit on a dharna.

Following this, Red Cross officials provided them Rs 20,000, and the local tehsildar assured an inquiry into the circumstances leading to Kalyani’s death.On the other hand, hospital staff at the New Medicine ward, refusing to be named, said Kalyani’s death was a result of her underlying health condition and not a delay in evacuation.