Jhansi hospital fire: Swapped children are reunited with families after two days of panic

Kripa Ram Yadav's newborn son goes missing in NICU fire tragedy, wife still missing, but child reunited after search.

Kripa Ram Yadav must have been a very happy man on November 7, 2024, when his wife gave birth to their son at Jhansi’s Maharani Laxmibai Medical College (MLBC). The baby, born after over five hours of labour, was admitted to the neonatal ICU (NICU) of the medical college due to minor seizures. 

A resident of Bamer village in Jhansi district, Mr. Yadav’s happiness, however, was only a week-long as his wife, Shanti Yadav, who was dealing with a mental illness, went missing from the hospital on November 14, 2024. Already troubled by this, the fire at the NICU the next day gave him another jolt as his son went missing in the chaos.

The fire, suspected to have started after a short circuit in an extension board, claimed the lives of 10 infants admitted in the NICU, while 39 others were rescued by relatives of the children, and hospital staff. 

In a short span of time, the fire and smoke had blocked the main entrance to the NICU, leaving only two windows to rescue children, many eyewitnesses said, adding that the unit was in three sections and it had become difficult to save those in the inner two sections. 

“It was a stampede-like situation there. Nobody was able to enter through the door. So, some people just broke the two windows to enter the room. They and the staff already inside just started handing over children to people standing outside. Nobody cared who was carrying whose child. Everyone just wanted to take them to safety,” Mr. Yadav, who was among those left empty-handed after the rescue efforts were over, said. 

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With his world turning upside down in just eight days, Mr. Yadav, for the next two days, ran around every ward of the MLBC, and several private hospitals and nursing homes, where rescued children had been moved, requesting many officials to help find his baby and his wife.