Postmortem examination to ascertain the real cause of death of five patients during the incident
Thiruvananthapuram: A huge fire broke out inside the Casualty wing of the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, resulting in the death of five persons.
While the relatives and political leaders alleged that the deaths occurred due to asphyxiation and shifting due to the fire incident, the hospital authorities maintained that four persons were having serious ailments, and one had died before reaching the hospital.
Given the allegations, the medical college authorities have decided to conduct a postmortem examination of the bodies of five patients.
The fire spread to the hospital's surgical super-speciality block on the night of May 2. While the police have registered a case under section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSSS), the fire and rescue services department has initiated a separate probe into the fire that started in the UPS room of the building.
The dead have been identified as Surendran, 59,Gopalan,65 Gangadharan , 70, Nasseera, 44 and Ganga 34.
According to authorities, the fire incident took place around 8 pm on Friday when a short circuit in the UPS unit resulted in an explosion. This led to the fire on the ground floor of the building where the casualty ward is located.
Soon, the smoke spread to other parts of the building, and around 200 patients had to be evacuated and shifted to other wards in the MCH and nearby private hospitals.
Hospital authorities have refuted the allegation that the deaths occurred due to the fire. While Ganga died even before reaching the hospital, other patients were also in a critical condition. They claimed that one of them had oral cancer, another had a serious liver ailment, the third had a kidney problem, and the fourth was suffering from severe pneumonia.
Minister orders probe
Health Minister Veena George ordered a technical probe into the fire incident by a panel of experts, including an electrical inspector.
The police have also initiated a forensic examination at the site. It will take at least three days to restore the operations at the surgical block which was badly affected by the fire incident.
