The burning question of child safety in Amravati’s government maternity hospital

On the rainy morning of August 26, the front courtyard of District Women Hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati district was crowded with politicians, reporters and bystanders. Amid them stood 30-year-old Swapnil Borde. His bottle-green shirt hung limp with sweat, while his red-rimmed eyes brimmed with tears.

He is the father of one of the three newborns who died after a fire broke out in the four-storey Special Newborn Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) on the third floor of the maternity hospital around 3.15 a.m. on August 24. Thirty-six babies were rescued and shifted to nearby hospitals, according to Amravati District Collector Ashish Yerekar. Two sustained burn injuries, says Amol Narote, medical superintendent of the government-run super-speciality hospital. Preliminary investigations indicate that a ventilator sparked the fire.

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Swapnil’s newborn was of low weight and had breathing issues, so was put on a ventilator two days before the fire.

“Gora bala kala kela. Ek minta pan nahi tambaycha ikde, khup bekar jhala ahe, pan mala ajun majhya mulachi janiv hote (My fair baby was turned black. I don’t want to be here even for a minute, but I still feel the presence of my child here),” says Swapnil, who works as a delivery person.

He adds, “This was the first baby in my family in this generation. It took us four years to conceive him. I took him in my arms only after he died.”

Outside the NICU, the empty fire extinguishers lay on the floor, while the soot-covered room, guarded by the police, continued to be frequented by people. Among them were members of a State-level investigation committee, Amravati MLC Pravin Pote and Achalpur Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Pravin Tayde. Former Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly and Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar also visited the hospital. The parents of the other two newborns who died in the August 24 fire came from Achalpur and Paratwada, 50 km from the hospital.

Established in 1938, the hospital is one of Amravati’s major government maternity hospitals. It also caters to Wardha, Yavatmal and Washim districts. Primary healthcare centres and sub-district hospitals across Amravati, including Melghat, a tribal-dominated region, refer critical pregnancies here. The hospital was formerly known as Dufferin Hospital, named after Lady Hariot Dufferin, who established the Dufferin Fund in 1884 to provide medical aid to women in India.

District Civil Surgeon Dr. Vinod Pawar, who is in charge of the maternity hospital, says, “Around 3.15 a.m., my staff in the NICU heard an explosion from the ventilator and saw fire coming out of it. They alerted the fire department and me simultaneously. Our priority was to rescue the babies.”

Dr. Pawar has submitted the fire-audit-related documents to the investigation committee. The police, meanwhile, have registered an accidental death report.

Maharashtra Minister for Public Health and Family Welfare Prakash Abitkar formed a seven-member committee headed by Public Health Commissioner Sanjay Katkar and directed it to submit its report within eight days. He said the committee’s findings would be made public and responsibility fixed.

On August 26, Mr. Katkar and the committee visited the spot and questioned the nurses who were present in the NICU at the time of the incident. The CCTV footage was also handed over to the committee, which comprises officials from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, AIIMS and the Directorate of Medical Education and Research. It has been tasked with examining ventilator and electrical faults, the fire-audit history and administrative lapses. The report was due on August 31 but has not yet been released.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced ₹5 lakh in compensation for each family that lost its newborn in the fire and directed that the treatment of injured infants be fully covered by the government.

Of the 36 newborn babies, 11 have been admitted to Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College (PDMMC), 10 to Hope Hospital, eight to Murkey Hospital and two to Parijat Hospital. Five were discharged with their mothers.

Radhika Yehkade, 19, was the last to deliver her twins before the fire. They were born around 2 a.m. on August 24 and kept in the NICU.

“I had a difficult pregnancy. I was in the hospital the week before my delivery. I am unable to let go of the voices in my head. Nurses shouting, ‘Help,’ people screaming, ‘Fire, fire.’ I am unable to make peace with the fact that my babies’ lives would have lasted only for two hours,” says Radhika, whose twins were admitted to PDMMC.

Radhika’s mother, Phula Shanware, 55, also an eyewitness, adds, “The smoke was dense; the fire brigade reached in time but took almost an hour to take water pipes to the third floor.”

Talking about her daughter, Phula says, “She had a tough pregnancy; we are daily wage earners and have already spent ₹80,000. We have been far from our house in Achalpur for almost 10 days.”