Deaths in DMCH ICU fire
Four precious lives were lost in the fire that devastated the newly built ICU of Dhaka Medical College Hospital recently. Incidence of fire is not unexpected. However, fire can be prevented if the preventive measures are in place and everyone is in the fire drill. And if it breaks out at all, the effects can be mitigated by proper and quick response by the concerned personnel. Therefore, the four lives lost is not acceptable and merits strong action against everyone in the line. Our weaknesses are exposed only after an incident occurs. And as facts reveal, had everything been okay, and had everyone played his or her part properly instead of abandoning the respective duty station leaving the patients behind, these four precious lives might not have been lost.
It is frustrating that the leading medical college and hospital in the country has no emergency evacuation plan, reportedly. And even if it has, as the Director of DMCH has claimed, the plan failed to work. We want to know why? Why was there no sign of the emergency response team to take care of the critical patients in the ICU when the fire broke out? It is sickening to learn that the nurses ran for their lives leaving the hapless patients to their fate. Even the fire extinguishers were not working, and given the picture we get from media reports, one wonders whether there was anybody to use the fire extinguishers even if those were working. The answer should be made public so that the mistakes are not repeated.
We are afraid that the responsibility for the deaths falls squarely on the shoulders of the DMCH administration. They should answer why there was no evacuation plan, and if there was, why it did not work. We would like to know when was the last time an evacuation and fire drill was carried out in the hospital. We would like to know when did the Fire Service inspect the DMCH last and what was their action if their recommendations were flouted. Rules and regulations there is no dearth of. What we lack are people in positions of responsibility whose dereliction of duty causes unnecessary loss of live. They must answer for their failure.
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