NEW DELHI: Parents and relatives of newborns have described scenes of chaos and desperation during the fire at the NICU of Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, which claimed the lives of 10 infants. Many broke windows to enter the ward, grabbing any child they could in a frantic attempt to save lives, the parents said. Late on Friday night, the fire engulfed the neonatal intensive care unit, which housed over 50 newborns.
As flames consumed the ward, parents scrambled to save their children amidst conflicting instructions and a lack of clear communication from hospital authorities. For Rani Sen, an aunt of one of the affected infants, the ordeal remains shrouded in confusion. “They told us to go in and take our children, but by then many had already died,” she told news agency ANI.
She questioned the hospital’s identification process, demanding DNA tests to confirm her baby's fate. “If the tags were burned or misplaced, how can they say which child is mine? I found a baby who wasn’t mine and admitted him under my name,” she said. Another mother, Santoshi from Mahoba district, described the helplessness she felt during the incident.
"I don’t know where my baby is. The fire broke out, and I couldn’t get inside to save him. No one could.
Everyone was running in panic," she told ANI, adding that the hospital had previously denied her access to her child. A grieving grandmother shared how parents broke windows in a frantic effort to save the.
