The toll in Monday night’s fire accident at a Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) in Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Telangana’s Adilabad district rose to five after two more infants succumbed to injuries on Wednesday, officials said.
Twenty newborns were rescued by security guards, ambulance drivers and staffers of the institute. Rajanarasimha inspected the SNCU ward and obtained details from officials about the relief measures taken after the fire, the health condition of the babies and the treatment provided to them. Around 27 infants were being treated in incubators at SNCU when the incident took place. The health minister also announced a 150-bed Mother and Child Health building at RIMS, as part of a wider plan to develop the hospital from around 800 beds to nearly 950 and expand several departments.
A five-day old female infant died when she was being shifted to a hospital in Nirmal, while another two-weeks-old baby breathed her last during treatment at RIMS in the early hours of Wednesday, according to an official from the district medical and health department. the medical condition of two newborns is said to be critical While five of them died. State health minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, who visited RIMS on Tuesday night, said an expert committee would examine the cause of the fire, any safety lapses, missed maintenance processes, and what the hospital needs to change.
