Islamabad, Pakistan – Staff nurse Razia Noreen was at a medicine cupboard on the nursery ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad’s largest public-sector hospital. She was two doors from the babies in her care, preparing the morning’s injections when she saw through the nursery’s glass panel a light too sharp and too red to be anything ordinary.
It was 6:38 am on Wednesday, August 26. According to security camera timestamps later logged by a government inquiry committee, Noreen rushed into the nursery at 6:38:56. Eight seconds later, she emerged carrying a baby. She tried to go back in but could not. By 6:40 am, the room was swallowed by smoke so thick that cameras could no longer see through it.
“There was a proper blast,” Noreen told Al Jazeera eight days later. “Everything turned to smoke.” Fifteen newborns had been in that nursery. Fourteen died. The baby Noreen carried out was the only one who lived.
The government’s interim inquiry, submitted on August 28, states that the precise cause of the fire “is not yet conclusively established”, with evidence pointing variously to the air conditioner, an incubator, or an electrical short circuit.
Noreen, 38, has spent 21 years in government nursing, the last 17 at PIMS. She has never married. “Thank God, I am very happy with the children,” she said. She describes nurses as “first mothers” to newborns separated from their mothers.
On the night of the fire, Noreen and Sister Nasreen were the only two nurses on duty for 15 babies, backed by two doctors. Noreen said it was not an unusual night. “Sometimes there are 20 babies, sometimes 25,” she said. “It’s always the two of us.”
Noreen also highlighted the lack of fire drills. “We should all have proper drills. If a fire starts, everyone needs to already know what to do,” she urged, calling for extinguishers, cross-ventilation, and rehearsed evacuation routes.
On Thursday, Noreen was given an award by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for her courage. Sharif called her “the nation’s daughter” and said her act would be remembered “in golden letters” in Pakistan’s history. He confirmed she will receive the Sitara-i-Khidmat (Star of Service) award on March 23 and handed her a cheque for 10 million Pakistani rupees ($36,000).
But the trauma remains raw. Noreen has had a fever and cough from smoke inhalation. “I haven’t slept, not since that day,” she said. “I take the tablets, I drink the cough syrup, but sleep doesn’t come. I close my eyes, and I open them again.”
The baby Noreen saved, born preterm at just over a kilogram, remains in the neonatal intensive care unit in critical condition. Noreen met the baby’s mother, Asifa, who hugged her and cried. Noreen told her, “Your child survived such a huge storm, she will survive what comes next, too. You pray, and I will pray.”
Reflecting on her actions, Noreen said she regrets not saving more. “I do regret it,” she said. “I could not save the rest of the children. That, I regret.” She advises other nurses to work with honesty and loyalty, noting that her reward came after 21 years of service.
Source: www.aljazeera.com