The newborn girl who was the only infant to survive the fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences has died (Express Tribune).
She died on 17 September, 22 days after being admitted on 26 August. The recorded cause was cardiac and respiratory arrest, following sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation and pulmonary bleeding that worsened after her rescue.
The toll is now 15.
Fourteen babies died in the fire. She is the fifteenth.
What this newspaper published yesterday
That President Asif Ali Zardari had approved the Tamgha-e-Shujaat for staff nurse Razia Noreen, who entered the burning ward and carried out the one child who survived. The prime minister had earlier approved the Sitara-e-Khidmat and a Rs10 million award.
Nothing about that is diminished. She went into a fire for a stranger’s baby and brought her out alive, and the child lived another three weeks because of it. That is what the medal is for, and it remains deserved.
What we wrote alongside it
We said the award should be set beside the fact that on 12 September the Senate’s human rights committee had to order the registration of an FIR, because none existed — weeks after the prime minister directed criminal proceedings and the termination of eight employees. A PIMS official confirmed to the committee that no case had been filed.
We wrote then that the state had moved quickly to honour the one person who behaved well and slowly to investigate the circumstances that required her to.
We did not expect that sentence to be tested this soon.
What remains unestablished about the fire itself
The inquiry we reported on 27 August found that oxygen equipment had exploded beside an incubator and that treatment and facilities were below international standards — but it never established the cause of the fire.
Three weeks later, that is still true.
What is not established
No hospital statement accompanied the death; the death certificate is the source for the cause and timeline. It has not been reported whether an FIR has since been registered, whether any official has been charged, or whether the toll of 15 has been formally acknowledged by the health ministry.
Neither the President’s office nor the Prime Minister’s office had commented at the time of writing.
[Image: The Express Tribune]
