‘No information about my son’— outside Jhansi hospital, frantic parents wait for news about missing newborns

“I was standing outside the ward when the fire broke out Friday night,” he tells The Indian Express. “I went inside and managed to bring four children out, but I couldn’t find my baby. I still have no information about my son.”

At 10.20 pm Friday, a massive fire broke out at the hospital’s NICU, killing 10 newborns.

Families outside the sealed NICU and emergency ward at Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi on Saturday. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)

For several parents, the ensuing chaos meant that they couldn’t find their newborn for hours, with hospital authorities taking time to identify them despite having a name tag for each baby.

According to parents and hospital authorities, the priority after the fire broke out was to rescue and relocate the newborns.

“I was trying to get inside to find my child when a hospital staff member came out and handed me a baby. I quickly took the baby to the emergency ward, where the rescued babies were being taken, just a short distance away,” Malkhan Singh, a 27-year-old native of the neighboring Mahoba district, says. Malkhan and his wife Kamlesh (24) had brought their newborn son to the Jhansi hospital on November 8 after the baby developed breathing issues.

A newborn rescued in the fire at the NICU of Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi, on Saturday. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)

On Saturday morning — after hours of frantic searching — the couple received news that their baby was safe.

Like Sunil, Hemawati (27) too is waiting for some news. A native of the neighbouring Lalitpur district, Hemawati had brought her son to the hospital two days after his birth because of breathing problems. Her baby was in the inner unit of the NICU, where the 10 newborn deaths were reported.

“Seeing the chaos last night, I feared my child might go missing. When I later heard about the death of 10 babies, I lost all hope,” she says while waiting outside the emergency ward.

Police outside the NICU ward of the hospital in Jhansi. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)

After the fire, Jhansi-native Babita Devi’s family didn’t tell her that her 10-day-old son was missing, fearing the news would affect her health. On Saturday morning, however, the family’s fears were allayed — the baby, who had been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, was found to be in the emergency ward. The news came as a relief for older sister Sunita Devi, who was fearing the worst. When contacted, the hospital’s Chief Medical Superintendent Dr. Sachin Mahour said the staff helped take the babies to the emergency ward. “Efforts were made to verify the identity of each baby in NICU,” he said.