’Can’t find my baby’: Newborns killed in Jhansi hospital fire identified through ’tags’, families recount heartbreak

Ten newborns died and 16 others were injured in a major fire that broke out at a hospital in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh late Friday. Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said the fire broke out around 10.45 pm on Friday in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College, one of the largest government hospitals in the state’s Bundelkhand region. 

The children who were in the outer part of the NICU were rescued, along with some of those who were in the interior part of the unit, news agency PTI reported. However, 10 babies were killed in the incident.

“The medical college has informed that 52 to 54 children were admitted at the time of the incident and 10 of them have died while 16 are undergoing treatment… verification for others is ongoing,” Senior Superintendent of Police Sudha Singh said.

Families of babies fire shared their heartbreaking ordeal, with some claiming that they have not yet found their children following the incident. A person even demanded a proof of death of her baby and raised question on the identification process at the hospital.

‘I don’t know where my child is’

Santoshi, the mother from Parsaha village in Mahoba district, is still searching for her 10-day-old baby, who was in the NICU. She said that after the fire, she couldn’t even look for her baby properly. “I searched, but I didn’t find him,” Santoshi said.

“I don’t know where my child is. When the fire broke out, I couldn’t go inside to rescue my baby. How could I? When no one was able to get inside, how could anyone hand me my baby? Everyone was running around in panic,” she told ANI.

Santoshi described the panic and helplessness she felt during the fire. She said, “There were so many babies inside when the fire broke out, and it seems the babies didn’t survive. Some babies couldn’t be rescued. It’s unclear if they were burned or saved. No one knows what happened to the children. This was my first baby.”

A grandmother from Rajgarh, whose 20-25-day-old grandchild was in the NICU, said her child hasn’t been found yet.

“My child was in the ICU, and as soon as the fire broke out, everyone rushed. The nurses were pushing people out, not allowing anyone to go inside. When people somehow managed to get inside, whoever could grab a child did so. Some broke in through the windows. My child hasn’t been found yet,” the grandmother was quoted by ANI as saying.

Meanwhile, a relative of a newborn who died in the fire told news agency ANI that they were stopped as they rushed to take the baby from the NCIU. “Later, we couldn’t find the baby, though we had looked for a long time. Later on, we were told that our baby died in the fire…we found the baby…my husband went and saw the baby,” she said.

Babies identified through ‘tags’

Rani Sen, an aunt of a baby who was in the NICU at the time of the fire, said that she has been searching for the child. She questioned the identification process used by the hospital. Sen demanded proof of her baby’s death and called for DNA tests to identify the victims.

“It is being said my child is dead, but no one has told me on what basis,” she was quoted by news agency ANI as saying. She said, “After the fire, they were saying, ‘Go in and take your children.’ But by then, many of the children had already died in the fire.”

“They say it’s based on the tags on the children. If the identification is based on tags, what about the child I found, who had no tag?” she said.

“I admitted that child under my name to Dr Kuldeep Trivedi’s care in the ICU, and he is safe now. But that child is not mine. I informed them of this as well,” Sen added. “If I hadn’t told them I had someone else’s child, would they even know it wasn’t mine?” she inquired.

Sen urged the authorities to bring all surviving children together for identification. “All the children in Jhansi’s hospitals should be brought in, and parents should be allowed to identify their own children. If anyone can’t identify their child, then a DNA test should be done,” she said.

‘Some parents took their kids home’

Senior Superintendent of Police Sudha Singh said there were inputs that some parents took their kids home after the fire erupted in the NICU. She said efforts were underway to find out the exact number of children who were in the NICU when the fire broke out and their current status.