AMRAVATI: He distributed sweets to celebrate the birth of his child; a day later, he sat shell-shocked outside the mortuary. On Monday, Swapnil Borge was devastated. His son was born only a day before, and although he had not even seen the baby’s face yet, Borge had gone around distributing sweets to everyone he met—government hospital staff, fellow patients, and even passers-by.
“I hadn’t even seen his face yet,” he said. “I don’t know how to tell my wife about this. It would be terrible if Pooja knew.”
Borge’s newborn son is one of three newborns who tragically died in a fire at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the government-run Amravati District Women’s Hospital. Officials suspect the fire, which broke out in the early hours of Monday, was caused by a fault in an NICU ventilator. “The incident took place around 4 am at the NICU of the hospital,” Amravati Collector Ashish Yerekar told The Indian Express. “There were 39 babies, of whom we were able to rescue 36, while three died. When the fire broke out, there were nine babies—one on a ventilator and eight on warmers. The baby on the ventilator and two babies who were next to him died in the incident.”
For more details: Navamalayalam.com