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Unlisted and Unheard: Families demand accountability for ICU fire deaths | Jaipur News - The Times of India

Jaipur: Agra's 54-year-old Sarvesh Devi and Sawai Madhopur's 37-year-old Digambar Raigar were among the eight critically ill patients who died in SMS hospital on Oct 5 when a short circuit triggered a fire in one of the neurosurgery ICUs. Both deaths, however, have not been acknowledged by SMS Hospital management. Now, their families have reached Jaipur to demand that govt compensate them for the loss of their family member.Devi, admitted to ICU-II, underwent surgery on the morning of Oct 5. In Raigar's case, doctors were planning to perform surgery just half an hour before fire broke out. Both families said their patients were on oxygen support.The families said hospital staff unhooked their oxygen supply and forced the attendants to move their patients to safety, when the fire broke out in the ICU next door. Both Raigar and Sarvesh Devi could not survive the shock move. They died within the hour. When the govt release the list of dead in the hospital fire, Sarvesh Devi and Raigar's names were not on the list. SMS administration said that since Sarvesh Devi and Raigar were not among the 11 patients undergoing treatment in the ICU that caught fire, their families would not be compensated for their loss. Sarvesh Devi had met with an accident on Oct 1 and was brought to SMS Hospital on Oct 4. She was operated upon on Sunday morning. "My mother, Sarvesh Devi, was undergoing treatment in the ICU adjacent to the ICU that caught fire. When the fire broke out, it triggered panic. We were asked to vacate the ICU. The staff removed all life support for my mother and asked us to move her out of the ICU. Other ICU patients were also asked to vacate," said Gaurav Kumar, Sarvesh Devi's 24-year-old son.Kumar said no one helped them rush his mother out of ICU. "My cousin and I wheeled her hospital bed out after the staff removed all life support systems. She was on ventilator support. We were told to take my mother to the third floor. We used the ramp to wheel her up. When we reached there, we asked the staff to put her on oxygen support. Within half an hour, though, she was declared dead," Kumar said.Squarely blaming the mismanagement by the hospital for his mother's death, Kumar said, "My mother died due to the fire in the hospital. The govt only declared six people dead in the ICU fire. But the fact is I lost my mother because of the fire too. We would not have had to move her of it were not for the fire," Kumar said.Moolchand Phulwariya, Raigar's uncle, narrated a similar story. "He (Raigar) was in the ICU adjacent to the one that caught fire. Doctors were preparing his surgery and asked us to make arrangements for blood. We did so. Everything was fine until fire broke out in the ICU next door just before the surgery. The staff removed Digambar's life support and asked us to take him out. Within minutes, he died. We took him outside the hospital building on the road. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and mother. No one else earns in the family. He was a labourer," Phulwariya said, asserting that he would have been alive if it were not for the fire. "The family deserves to be compensated. We demand that the govt provide for Digambar's family," Phulwariya added.

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