While a pall of gloom hung over the SUM Hospital here on Tuesday, a day after a major fire in the hospital’s dialysis ICU wing led to 22 deaths, family members and relatives of the victims broke down at the Capital Hospital, where the dead were brought for postmortem.
“My mother-in-law P Kalyani Patro had been admitted at the SUM Hospital on October 13. She was suffering from fever and was about to be discharged on Tuesday,” Arjun Patro was quoted as saying.
Kalyani of Kabisuryanagar in Ganjam district died due to suffocation in the midst of the thick smoke resulting from the fire. “The staff did not allow us to enter the intensive care unit and bring her out,” Arjun alleged, adding that had the relatives been allowed to enter the ICU, Kalyani could have been saved.
There was complete chaos as hundreds of patients and attendants tried to escape the blaze, said eyewitnesses.
Said Dora Pradhan, “I could not decide where to go with my son after I saw the thick smoke coming out from the second floor.” His son Shiva was operated upon on Monday following a bike accident. Pradhan, who escaped the tragedy, is grateful to two others from his village who helped him.
After escaping the inferno, helpless relatives scampered around several city hospitals searching for their near and dear ones as most of the surviving patients were shifted, while the dead were sent for autopsy.
“I had got my father admitted in the cardiology department of SUM Hospital. After the fire broke out, they disallowed entry to the department,” said one Jagannath Pradhan, adding, “I searched for my father in every city hospital as they did not give out any information. Finally, I traced him to the Capital Hospital.”