Kamal Ghorui
Bhubaneswar: Despite burn wounds on his left arm and laboured breathing, Bibekananda Badajena returned to work on Tuesday. The male nursing officer at SCB Medical College and Hospital was among the first to respond when the fire alarm rang out in the trauma ICU on Sunday night.In those frantic moments, as smoke filled up the ward and panic took over, his focus remained on the patients.The fire alarm sounded around 2.45 am, he said. Badajena, who was on night duty in the casualty ward on the ground floor, rushed to the trauma ICU along with eight attendants.“When I entered the ICU, I saw intense flames near the first few beds and dense smoke throughout the ICU. Visibility was very low. Three nursing staff on duty tried to use fire extinguishers, but the fire spread rapidly due to the presence of a false ceiling and many ICU equipment that caught flames easily,” he said. Most patients were on ventilators or oxygen support.Within minutes, firefighters began spraying water inside the ICU as more security guards and volunteers joined the rescue effort. Even as water was being sprayed, parts of the false ceiling began collapsing.Amid the chaos, Badajena and attendants checked patients’ pulses while others moved towards the fire exit to evacuate them.“As many guards and volunteers were untrained, they tried to pull the cots. We stopped them, removed tubes from patients, and used Ambu bags (manual resuscitators) while lifting them. We then carried patients manually to the fire exit, located at one corner of the ICU, where attendants and guards were already waiting with stretchers to shift them to safety,” recalled the nursing officer, who has been on casualty duty for the past two months.One by one, he helped move critically ill patients to safety, saving seven lives. “At that moment, everyone from firefighters to guards, volunteers and nurses did their best to rescue as many patients as they could. It was a matter of life and death, but all chose duty over fear,” he said.Most rescuers suffered minor burns and breathing issues due to smoke inhalation. “But none of us was seriously injured, thanks to the firefighters. We were drenched and covered in soot, but the continuous water spray helped,” he added.The rescue operation lasted 40 to 45 minutes until all patients were evacuated. Even afterwards, Badajena and a few others stayed back, using torchlight to ensure no one was left behind. For the seven lives he saved, he said, the burn wounds were a small price to pay.
