Bhandara: Women stand in a corridor at the Bhandara General Hospital, where a fire broke out, in Bhandara district, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021.
Thirty-nine-year-old Hirkanya Bhanarkar had given birth to a girl on January 6, after 14 years of marriage and giving birth to three stillborn foetuses. The ill-fated day, however, took away her child after a massive fire erupted at the Bhandara hospital in Maharashtra on Saturday. Talking to reporters outside Akoli Public Health Centre (PHC) in Bhandara district on Sunday night, her husband, Hiralal Bhanarkar said this should not happen to anyone.
"Such thing should not happen to anyone.... children should live and should be playing," he said while struggling to suppress his wails.
The detached words of Hiralal sounded like he was hysterical and was struggling to regain his composure, natural for a man who eagerly waited for his bundle of joy for 14 long years, and when he was yearning to caress the baby girl, she is gone forever.
Hirkanya, who is currently admitted in the PHC, is too dazed to speak.
"She is in deep shock", a nurse told a news channel.
The labourer couple hails from Usgaon village in Sakoli tehsil of Bhandara district. Hirkanya gave birth to a girl on January 6 at the Sakoli sub-district hospital.
"However, as the girl was born premature in the seventh month of Hirkanya's pregnancy and underweight, she was shifted to the Special Newborn Care Unit of Bhandara district hospital on the same day," the nurse said.
According to her, the poor couple didn't have a toilet at their house, which was the cause of the girl's premature birth.
"The mother fell down while she was attending a nature's call, which led to the premature delivery. Had it not been for this accident, the girl would have born healthy after two months," she said.
Besides the daughter of the Bhanarkars, nine other babies perished in the fire that broke out on early hours of Saturday at the Special Newborn Care Unit of the four-storeyed district hospital.
