‘What happened to our daughter’: 11-year-old girl dies in Odisha hospital fire; kin allege negligence

BHUBANESWAR: The early morning fire at the trauma care centre of SCB Medical College and Hospital has left behind an irreparable loss and a haunting question for Krupasindhu Mallick of Bhadrak.

His 11-year-old daughter, Kalyani Mallick, admitted to the paediatric ICU on the second floor of the trauma care centre, died hours after the blaze broke out, leading to the hurried evacuation of patients from the centre. While SCB claimed that the girl succumbed to her underlying health conditions, Mallick alleged that her death was due to negligence by nurses, who did not evacuate her on time.




"My daughter was a thalassaemia patient and was admitted to the paediatric ICU here from Bhadrak district HQ hospital on March 15. Her condition was stable, but she had tubes fixed to her nose and mouth when the fire broke out on the first floor on Sunday night," said Mallick, a resident of Sahada Haripur in Bhadrak district. Along with Kalyani, there were three other children in the ICU.

During the incident, Mallick's wife, Sumati, was inside the paediatric ICU attending to her daughter, while he and his relatives were on the ground floor of the trauma centre. Mallick heard that a fire had broken out on the first floor and rushed to the ICU to inform Sumati. "By then, nurses and other staff were evacuating children through the fire exit, while my daughter was still inside," he said. Both Krupasindhu and Sumati were asked to vacate the building.

Krupasindhu claimed that only after the fire was put off, a health staff member informed them that Kalyani had been shifted to the ICU in the New Medicine building. Though the couple was informed that her condition was stable, they were not allowed to see her. At 3 pm, I was told by the nurses that Kalyani had died, Mallick said.