Kolkata: Operation evacuation at MCH

KOLKATA: Nineteen-year-old dengue patient Ranajit Naskar squatted uneasily on a seat at a bus shelter on College Street. His mother Iti and aunt held him tightly, fanned him and wiped his sweat but Ranajit kept shivering while mumbling that he won’t return to his bed on the second floor of the main building that had caught fire on Wednesday morning. Too weak to walk down the stairs, Ranajit was carried to safety by a local who had joined the rescue operation. But the youngster suffered a nervous breakdown and refused to be taken back long after the flames were doused.


Around 250 patients were carried out of the MCH building to the emergency, Ezra ward and the Mother and Child hub in bedsheets and pieces of cloth. Many were forced to stagger down the stairs since there was none to carry them. Scores were made to lie on the ground near the emergency ward till they could be accommodated in other parts of the hospital.

“Around 8.10am, we saw the fire. In the next 10 minutes, smoke started spreading and then there was a melee to rush downstairs. Ranajit's condition was such that he could not walk down the stairs. We could not lift him either. Fortunately, someone came and picked him up and carried him down amidst chaos in the stairwell,” said Iti.

Most patients like Ranajit had relatives staying with them who hastened the evacuation and helped save lives. Cardiac patient Pradip Pal was woken up by the sound of commotion soon after the fire broke out. He tried asking a few other patients what had happened but everybody was in a hurry to leave. His younger brother Sudip had stepped out for a cup of tea. “I have been told by doctors not to exert myself physically because the condition of my heart is not very good. Since I also have a respiratory disorder, I have to be on oxygen. While I was stuck on my bed, I could smell something burning. The building was on fire and everybody is running to save their lives,” said Pal, 52.

Pal was on the verge of tears when he saw his brother walk into the ward. “I started crying when I saw my brother. I had almost given up but my hopes of living were rekindled. He made me stand up and lifted my oxygen cylinder. I started running. I was out of breath after walking a few paces but the real test awaited at the stairs, where a stampede-like situation had been created,” said Pal.

Eighty-eight-year-old Satyacharan Das was carried away from the medicine ward in a bedsheet by a neighbour who was staying with him. The latter called Das’ grandson Rabin, who traced the octogenarian at the emergency ward’s first floor. Shaken and exhausted, Das was barely conscious. “He could have died. But luckily, he was not kept under the sun for long,” said Rabin.

Five-year-old leukemia patient Surya Chanda was among the scores of children who had to be evacuated from the haematology ward. He has been under treatment at the hospital for the last five months. His father Sanjay was among the first to spot the smoke at 7.45am and got ready to leave. “Even as I gathered my papers and files, the ward attendants asked us to wait. After about 15 minutes, the evacuation began and I rushed down with my son. There were around 25 patients at the ward, including 10 children. Fortunately, we were moved to the paediatric ward in an hour,” said Sanjay, a resident of Bagnan. Later in the afternoon, they returned to the haematology ward.