Abohar, February 10
Two infants suffered burns, one of them critically, and a male nurse felt unconscious in the ensuing rescue operation as 10 of the 15 incubators at the District Civil Hospital, Sriganganagar, perished in a fire today. The three-day old infant has been shifted to PBM Hospital in Bikaner and the other is admitted to a private hospital. Male nurse, who risked his life in the rescue operation, has been shifted to the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Amandeep Kaur of Mirzewala village had given birth to a child in the maternity ward of the hospital on Friday and he had to be kept in an incubator. Two other infants were kept in neighbouring incubators in the nursery ward but one had been taken out by his mother Chandni for breast-feeding just minutes before the mishap. As the fire broke out due to short circuit, smoke emanating from fiber-made incubators caused panic. The only male nurse present there, Gurprem, rushed in and switched off incubators and rescued both the infants. But Amandeep’s baby had been injured critically by then. Gurprem fell unconscious due to pollution caused by smoke. Three fire tenders control the fired after 90 minutes by removing air-conditioners and flooding water from different directions.

District Collector Dharminder Bhatnagar visited the hospital and discussed the situation with Chief Medical and Health officer (CMHO) HS Brar. He directed the CMHO to get incubators checked by the manufacturers, shift surplus incubators from other centres to the district hospital and arrange three new incubators also.