Doctors, other hospital staff members and patients panicked after the smoke started to spread, causing a stampede.
Rescue officials said that after receiving an emergency call about the fire, they rushed to the spot.
An official, who was part of the rescue operation, said that two vehicles were used to quickly put out the fire. He said the fire might have been caused by an electric short circuit.
A hospital nurse, on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune, “The doctors present in the operation theatre left the child they were operating on, on the operation table and ran for their lives… It was a nurse, present in the theatre, who saved the life of the child.”
MS Javed says if the nurse saved the life of a patient she was also an official of the hospital and credit goes to the hospital administration. He added that above all there was no possibility that doctors preffered saving their lives leaving the patients behind.
A female patient said that it was about 9:45 am when the fire erupted on the second floor of the hospital.
“I had just reached the hospital with my brother,” she said, adding, “I don’t know what happened exactly but it looked bad.”
The Services Hospital medical superintendent (MS), Mohammad Javed, said that the doctors were about to operate on three patients when the untoward incident occurred. “We had already operated on three other patients before the theatre caught fire,” he added. Javed added that he had constituted a committee comprising Professor Sarfaraz, Professor Riaz Tasneem, Professor Mohammad Ali and Dr Saeed Ahmed to investigate the matter.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2010.
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