Lucky escape for 23 newborn babies

Warangal: Thick black smoke that emanated in the Step Down Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Hospital here sent inmates in a tizzy on Thursday morning. However, the situation was brought under control very swiftly by the hospital staff without any harm to patients and property.

According to hospital authorities, there were 23 new-born babies in the NICU when smoke started to emanate from one of the four air-conditioner units at around 7.30 am. Noticing the smoke, the inmates quickly vacated the ward with their infants.

It’s learnt that owing to excess heat, an air-conditioners got overheated leading to short-circuit. Had it happened in the night, it would have led to chaos in the hospital triggering panic among the patients and attendants.

As a precautionary measure, the fire tenders were called in by the hospital authorities to avoid any untoward incident. MGM Superintendent B Srinivas Rao said: “The hospital staff that identified smoke in the ward acted swiftly and shifted the inmates to another ward. They also snapped the power lines connected to the ward. There was nothing to panic as the staff quickly brought the situation under control.”

There is not even iota of negligence on part of hospital staff, he said, stating that they have skilled electricians monitoring the hospital round the clock. We have taken care of all the kids and there was no damage even to the equipment in the ward, the head of paediatric ward Vijay Kumar said.

Meanwhile, it’s learnt that electric supply in the hospital has been witnessing high-voltage power fluctuation for some time. According to officials, a 350 KV transformer is under installation. It’s also learnt that the Superintendent is likely to order an inquiry into the incident to improve safety of the patients.