Rajkot: It was a close shave for 65-year-old Nayna Visrolia but the traumatized sexagenarian could barely recount the horrific details of the past midnight to TOI.
Visrolia, a resident of nearby Ambaji plot, who had successfully battled Covid-19 and was supposed to be discharged on Thursday was kept a day more after she complained of headache. Therefore, she stayed under doctors’ observation in the facility’s second floor while fire broke out on the first floor of the Uday Shivanand hospital at Mavdi road.
“I was admitted in this hospital 10 days ago after I tested positive with the virus. Like in the past nine days I talked to my son, daughter and son-in-law over phone after dinner and then went to sleep. At around midnight I heard severe screaming. I, at first, couldn’t understand why there was so much confusion and smoke everywhere outside my window. I tried to see, but without my spectacles, I couldn’t see anything clearly. Then suddenly, some nursing staff started screaming fire, fire! Someone also asked me to vacate the bed. But I was unable to do it immediately as I could not see nor locate my glasses. Also the fear kind of paralyzed me — I was very scared that I will not be able to get up from my bed or walk out to safety. I thought I will die. However, somehow I managed to drag myself towards the entrance to go outside,” she said.
While recounting her tale Visrolia’s eyes mirrored the fright she experienced and her voice shook with exhaustion.
After pausing for a minute, she showed her blackened palms and soot-stained clothes and continued, “I didn’t understand what happened in that fraction of seconds. When I reached the entrance, someone, ,may be some staff or fire brigade personnel, helped me go down the stairs. I will never ever forget the scene downstairs where some charred bodies were lying on the first floor. It was like travelling through hell...”
However, Visroliya could inform her son who had already rushed to the hospital. “I was asked to sit in an ambulance but I saw my son standing there. I told him to take me home and not to any more hospitals. But they assured me that I will be taken to a safe place and I sat in the ambulance,” said the elderly woman staring uncertainly at the unseen future.
Others rushed to the terrace
Rahul Karingiya (35), a resident of Keshod town in Junagadh district, was admitted to this hospital’s second floor just two days before. “As fire broke out we were asked to go to safer place and we climbed to the terrace to save ourselves from the suffocation and smoke. There were nearly 10 to 12 patients with me on the terrace. We were later rescued by fire department officials,” he added.