HYDERABAD: Saleem Khan had just stepped out of RIMS’ special neonatal care unit (SNCU) on Monday night when, startled by a deafening sound and thick smoke, he rushed back with his brother. Khan’s five-day-old baby girl was admitted there after being born underweight at a private hospital.Though the anxious father managed to break through a glass door and enter the SNCU, it was too late. His infant had already died, allegedly due to asphyxiation.“What should I tell my wife when she asks me about the baby?” an inconsolable Khan said hours after the tragedy. His wife had not yet seen their newborn daughter. A resident of Subhash Nagar in Ichoda, Khan had brought his daughter to RIMS soon after her birth, on the advice of doctors at the private hospital where the delivery took place. The child was underweight and needed care in a specialised SNCU such as the one at RIMS.On the day of the fire, Khan visited her as usual. He had barely stepped out and removed the visitor gown when an AC inside the SNCU reportedly exploded. “Doctors, nurses and security guards broke the glass doors and started bringing the babies out. Everyone was trying to rescue the infants,” Khan said.The situation soon turned chaotic. About 15 minutes later, hospital officials and police reached the spot and stopped people from entering as smoke continued to fill the area. Khan said he could not find his daughter and had no way of knowing whether she had been evacuated. “My brother and I went around to the rear of the building, broke open a door and entered the ward in search of the baby. Though we found her and brought her out, we couldn’t save her,” the visibly distraught father said. “The baby was supposed to be our third child, after two sons.,” Khan said.
