Amongst the overflowing occupants of the 92 base hospital at the Badamibagh cantonment are six infants in incubators between the age group of 4 to 17 days who were rescued by the army. Seven more children were brought dead and have been kept in the mortuary. Thirty five year old Javed Bhat's wife delivered a baby boy five days ago in Sopore. When the baby did not cry, Bhat was advised to bring him to GB Pant ICU in an ambulance. Three days later, Bhat and his two-day old son were isolated on the second floor of the hospital with his mother still in Sopore and clueless whether her baby is alive or dead. “It was Friday and half of the people said that there will not be floods. I was worried because the baby's mother was not with him. I bought food from outside but the baby wasn't consuming that. Instead, he was shivering. We kept shouting that please save us. Finally, yesterday (Sunday), an army boat came and rescued us along with other parents and their babies,” said Bhat. The anger amongst civilian population against the GB Pant hospital was clearly visible as Younis Ahmed, 30, resident of Sharifabad, who has a ten-day old baby, said, “Ten babies died in front of me in the hospital. The doctors and the staff there would cook and have food on the top floor, even as the patients and crying children were left unfed and deprived of medicines. They were more bothered about the mobile connectivity and about the fact that their cars were submerged in water”. Gousia Jan, 20, a resident of Pral, spent seven days in G B Pant hospital and she was rescued on Sunday evening by the army's rescue boats. Fourteen boats from the Badamibagh relief centre have been relentlessly doing the rounds of Srinagar city through roads that have turned into a river, a total of 130 patients, including children and elderly, are feared to have been trapped inside the hospital. Brig N S Lamba, director, 92, base hospital, said, “I have a capacity of 600 patients and presently we already have 500. This, when my own army personnel are being treated elsewhere. The seven dead children who are a few days old have been kept in the mortuary. We are expecting the number of patients to cross 600. Because this is a soldiers' hospital we are facing a major dearth of fresh milk and regenerated food, arrangements for which are being made”.
