City lends a helping hand

Vividha Kaul / TNN / Apr 12, 2006, 01:43 IST

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With Meerut's healthcare facilities unable to handle the load of burn victims of Monday's fire, relatives continued to rush patients to Delhi hospitals.

NEW DELHI: With Meerut's healthcare facilities unable to handle the load of burn victims of Monday's fire, relatives continued to rush patients to Delhi hospitals throughout Monday night. Some were brought in on Tuesday too, as there was reportedly a great shortage of ambulances in Meerut.
A total of 42 patients had been brought to Delhi by evening, 26 of them at Safdarjung Hospital, out of which two died.Ten were admitted at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, four at Lok Nayak Hospital, two at S L Jain Hospital and one at Moolchand.
Grieving relatives kept vigil outside the burns department at Safdarjung as nobody was allowed to go in. "We rushed our sister-in-law Geeta Gupta, 35, to Delhi as she had 95% burns.
She passed away in the afternoon, while her husband who has 40% burns is in Meerut. We just don't have the heart to tell their two sons," says a relative. Earlier in the day, Y P Singh, 40, also succumbed to his injuries.

Several others struggled to come to terms with the magnitude of the tragedy. Monu, 12, was brought to hospital at 3 pm. "His mother Aamna Siddiqui is still missing. He fell on her in the commotion, but doesn't know what happened next," says a relative. Dr Anjali who has 65% burns has still not been told that her 19-year-old daughter is no more.
With one of her sons at Safdarjung and another one admitted in a Meerut hospital, Pratibha Vij doesn't know what to do.

"My husband is with our younger son Paras, 24, in Meerut, while I have come here with Puneet, 26. Puneet saved six of his employees by warning them about the fire on the cellphone, but collapsed while trying to run," she says.
Manoj Jain's relative Vijay Jain risked his life to save his family. "He had gone there with his wife and daughters. While running, Prakriti, 8, fell.
He went to look for her and got burnt further. After that, he came out, drove them all to hospital and called us on his way there," says Manoj.
Many relatives were still trying to arrange for ambulances. "There is an extreme shortage and some of us paid as much as Rs 16,000 to get them here. The doctors have to be paid in addition," says Pankaj Khattar, whose three relatives are admitted at Apollo.
Amid this commotion, there was some relief too �� in the form of people who turned up at the hospital with freshly-cooked paranthas and tea for the relatives. "We did this during the blasts too. This is our job," says a member of Bhai Daya Singh Charitable Trust.
According to official sources in Meerut, ��Twenty-eight bodies have been identified so far. Among the injured, 125 are admitted to at least 28 hospitals in Meerut, Ghaziabad, Noida, Delhi and other places."

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