Families Struggling To Identify Their Newborn Babies Killed In Delhi Hospital Fire

“Allah ko pyaari ho gayi meri beti,” said a father, whose 11-day-old daughter died in the massive fire in a Delhi childcare hospital. In the aftermath of the devastating fire that killed seven newborn babies, families are struggling to identify their children.

Meanwhile, three of the six of the families are reliving the trauma of losing their child.

Ruhi, a 17-day-old baby, was admitted to the hospital two days ago due to a fever and died in the fire. Her mother said, “Yesterday I met my baby, and this morning, we received information about the fire. Since then, we have been trying to find out about her.” “We admitted her to this hospital to improve her health but we didn’t know that this hospital would take away our only child,” she said.

“They removed all her necklaces, including her ‘Najar ki mala‘. When they took her in, she was just wearing a diaper,” she said.  Ruhi was born on May 10, and her family lives in Karkardooma.

A fire broke out at Baby Care New Born Hospital around 11:30 PM on Saturday, officials of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) said. The blaze quickly spread to two adjacent buildings, requiring 16 fire engines. Three buildings were affected by the fire.

“Allah ko pyaari ho gayi meri beti,” said a father, whose 11-day-old daughter had not yet been identified.

“My daughter was born on May 15 at another hospital. They asked us to keep her in the childcare hospital for 72 hours for observation. After that, we admitted her to the childcare hospital, where she had been for the last 10 days,” he said.

“My friends called and told me that there was a blast at the childcare hospital in Delhi where my daughter was. When I found out and came here, I learned that my daughter had passed away,” he said.

Meanwhile, three families among the six of them have lost children before and are reliving the ordeal after their newborn babies died in the fire. Masialam, a labourer and a father of one of the fire victims had lost a son five years ago. “I have lost my newborn son. What kind of facilities do they have? You can ask the parents who have sold their jewellery or took money on interest for the treatment of their kids. I am a labourer and after finding out that the child, who was born in Manglam Hospital, had an infection, we admitted him to this hospital. I have a three-year-old daughter and lost a son around five years back.” 

Parvinder Kumar, the relative of another fire victim, said, “We have not even informed the mother yet.”  Kumar said, “This was the first child of my relative, Pawan Kumar. We have no idea how the incident unfolded. The girl was born around six days ago at a hospital in Ghaziabad and was admitted to the care centre the same day. 

“She was having breathing issues when she was born and was showing improvement in the care centre. Our relative called us around 9 am and informed us about the incident. The negligence was on the hospital’s part. Strict action must be taken against its owner,” Parvinder said.  

He further stated that they are farmers and belong to the Baghpat district in Uttar Pradesh. Hritik Chaudhary, whose newborn son also died in the fire, said that every single official who is visiting the hospital is tight-lipped. They have no answer if the hospital was legal, or whether the hospital had an NOC from the fire department.  Chaudhary’s cousin, Robin said that nobody informed them about the incident and they came to the spot after watching the news.

The confusion and lack of information left many families in despair when they reached the hospital.  After the incident, District Magistrate (DM), Shahdara, Ritisha Gupta also reached the GTB Hospital. Many families stood outside and raised slogans, ‘Humein Insaaf Chahiye (we want justice)”.