- Six people who died in Jaipur hospital fire had serious neurological conditions, a senior staffer said
- They died not because of the fire, but because they had to be moved in their critical condition, he said
- The fire was reportedly caused by a suspected short circuit that spread rapidly through the ICU
The six people who died Sunday in the fire at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital had life-threatening medical conditions that required constant treatment in the intensive care unit.
Evacuations forced by the fire denied all six - two women and four men - that critical care for neurological illnesses and so they died, SMS Hospital Superintendent Sushil Bhati said.
"These people did not die because of the fire... they died because they were serious (critically ill) patients, and they had to be moved out of the ICU," Bhati told news agency ANI.
"No one died from the fire," he said thrice. "There was a fire in the ICU (and) there was a lot of smoke. Because of that we shifted the patients. No one was injured separately."
Asked, again, if the six who died did not lose their lives in the fire itself, Bhati said, "No, they did not die because of the fire. They were serious (i.e., critically ill) patients. Such patients, who are already very sensitive, were shifted to another ICU because of the fire and gas."
Bhati also stressed ICU patients who survived the shift continue to receive the required treatment; the ward they were shifted to has oxygen cylinders and ventilators, he said.
A suspected short circuit caused a massive blaze at the state-run hospital late Sunday.
Trauma in-charge Dr Anurag Dhakad said 11 patients were treated in the ICU, which contained patients suffering from serious neurological conditions, at the time.
The fire spread quickly through the ICU and the rest of the building, triggering panic among other patients and their families, some of whom later accused the hospital staff of negligence.
READ | Patients Not Rescued, Fire Extinguishers Didn't Work: Jaipur Hospital Horror
The staff, they said, had been warned about the smoke but passed it off as 'normal'.
READ | Jaipur Hospital Fire Victims Rescued By Families. Ambulance Came Late
The families also said the fire alarm was not activated and there were no extinguishers, and, perhaps most damning, that hospital staff ran to save their own lives during the fire.
However, some staff said they did, in fact, do all they could to save people; a ward boy said, "We were inside the operating theatre... we rushed to rescue people... managed to save at least three to four but, as the flames intensified, we could no longer go into the building."
Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma visited the hospital to take stock of the situation, and set up a panel - led by Iqbal Khan, Medical Department Commissioner - to investigate the fire.
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