Baby Bhabani, a nursing assistant at SUM Hospital where a major broke out on Monday claiming 20 lives, recounted the horrifying scene at the Intensive Care Unit of the burn department.
TOI
Bhabani, who was on duty then, showed exemplary courage and professionalism by not deserting her patients, who were on ventilators. For about 40 minutes she braved the suffocating smoke and the screams all around her and even saw a patient die due to asphyxiation.
The 30-year-old nursing assistant is in a state of trauma and undergoing treatment at AMRI Hospital in the city.
"I cannot forget the fear-stricken faces of the patients. People were shouting, asking us to leave the room but we could not abandon the patients," she said, adding that when she saw a patient gasping for breath, she cried for help but there was no one around. Bhabani was in the ICU with two other nurses.
PTI
It was only five days ago that she had joined the ICU of the burn department. Bhabani feels the patients could have been saved. "Everyone was running to save themselves. We were choking in the ICU and could hear sounds of glasses being broken. We waited for about 40 minutes for help. When people finally came, it was too late," she said.
Sobbing, she added, "Most of the patients are from poor families. They did not spend so much money to see their near and dear ones die. I feel we have killed the burn patient. She could have lived longer."
AFP
Bhabani remembers losing consciousness and falling on the floor. "People were running over my body with stretchers. But I could not get up," she recalled.
Bhabani belongs to a family of farmers in Kantilo village in Nayagarh district. "When I took up nursing, I knew I would have to handle death cases. But I never imagined I would have to see people dying in this manner," she said.