One more succumbs to injuries in ESIC hosp fire

Mumbai: With the death of a senior citizen on Thursday, the death toll in the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital (Kamgar Hospital), Marol, Andheri east, fire incident rose to 10. Currently, the 175 injured, including some children, are undergoing medical treatment at various hospitals across the city.

Dattu Narwade (65), succumbed to his injuries at the privately-run Holy Spirit Hospital at around 4.20am on Thursday; the cause of his death was cited as respiratory failure. He was suffering from pneumonia and had a history of tuberculosis. Hospital sources said that smoke inhalation worsened his condition since he   already having weak lungs.

Sister Sneha, executive director, Holy Spirit Hospital, said, “Narwade was first admitted to the ward but his condition started deteriorating sin-ce Tuesday evening and we had to put him on ventilator. Early on Thursday, he suffered from respiratory failure.”

Around 175 people, incl-uding women and children, were injured in the fire that broke out at Employees’ State Insur-ance Corporation Hospit-al on Monday. Nea-rly 375 people, including patients and visitors, were stuck at the five-floor hospital when the fire erupted. The blaze was first no-ticed near the operation theatre of the hospital. It quickly spre-ad horizontally and vertically, trapping around 155 people.

Sheela Morvekar (80) was the ninth victim of the ESIC fire incident wh-o succumbed to injuries on Wednesday. Morvekar was already in a critical condition when the fire broke out Monday.

Meanwhile, ten patie-nts, including a pre-term baby girl weighing just 600gram, who suffered severe smoke inhalation in the fire, are critical and continue to be on ventilator support.