‘I could not save the rest’: Hero nurse remembers Pakistan’s nursery fire

Islamabad, Pakistan – Staff caregiver Razia Noreen was astatine a medicine cupboard connected the nursery ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad’s largest public-sector hospital. She was 2 doors from the babies successful her care, preparing the morning’s injections.

As she unopen the cupboard door, she saw done the nursery’s solid sheet a airy excessively crisp and excessively reddish to beryllium thing ordinary. She did not hold to recognize what it was.

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It was 6:38am connected Wednesday, August 26. Elsewhere successful the ward, her colleague, Sister Nasreen, was already moving out, shouting for help.

At 56 seconds past 6:38am, according to information camera timestamps aboriginal logged by a authorities enquiry committee, Noreen rushed into the nursery.

Eight seconds later, she emerged carrying a baby. She tried to spell backmost in. She could not. By 6:40am, the country was gone, swallowed by fume truthful heavy that the information cameras could nary longer spot done it.

Noreen was recalling this 8 days later, successful a plain bureau beside the hostel warden’s country astatine PIMS, dressed successful a airy pinkish shalwar kameez, her dupatta escaped implicit 1 shoulder.

“There was a due blast,” she told Al Jazeera. “Everything turned to smoke.”

Fifteen newborns had been successful that nursery. Fourteen died. The babe Noreen carried retired was the lone 1 who lived.

On Thursday, Noreen was fixed an grant by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for her courage. But for the nurse, the trauma of that Wednesday greeting was inactive raw.

Barely 2 hours aft gathering the premier minister, she sat down and talked, astatine length, astir what happened inside.

Rescue workers had to interruption the factual grill and past a model to summation entree to the ward [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]

‘Save the babies’

Noreen had been connected work since 8pm the erstwhile night, moving a regular dawn medicine circular with Sister Nasreen, with little than 2 hours near earlier the extremity of her shift.

When she saw the airy done the nursery glass, she says she did not halt to enactment retired what it was.

“I conscionable told my sister nurse, prevention the babies,” she told Al Jazeera. “I went in. I didn’t deliberation astir what would hap next.”

Noreen said the occurrence was coming retired of the broadside of the air-conditioning portion facing her.

“The AC was close successful beforehand of me, and the occurrence was coming retired of its side,” she said. “We don’t cognize what was happening down it. That’s conscionable what I saw.”

The government’s interim inquiry, submitted connected August 28, states that the precise origin of the occurrence “is not yet conclusively established”, with grounds pointing variously to the aerial conditioner, an incubator oregon an electrical abbreviated circuit.

Inside the nursery, Noreen reached the nearest baby. There was nary clip to take betwixt 15. She carried the babe retired and handed her to Dr Abdul Rehman, a doc who had been inserting a feeding conduit successful the adjacent country and emerged into the corridor moments aft her. Then she turned back.

“I thought I’d get five, six, seven, 8 much of them out,” she said. “But the occurrence was moving faster than I was.”

A 2nd doctor, Dr Rimsha, who had been doing rounds adjacent and saw the aforesaid airy Noreen had, followed her in.

The 2 of them, and aboriginal Sister Nasreen, tried to crawl backmost done the fume beneath the worst of the heat. A abrupt nonaccomplishment of powerfulness plunged the country into darkness. They could not get through.

Noreen’s phone, near down connected the medicine array erstwhile she ran in, sat wrong the burned ward overnight. Hospital guards recovered it and returned it to her the adjacent afternoon. Its lawsuit is inactive scorched and cracked.

Noreen, Dr Rimsha and Sister Nasreen alternatively moved to wherever a abstracted rescue squad was lowering babies from an adjoining gynaecology ward. They stood determination catching newborns and moving them to the neonatal intensive attraction portion until the fume became excessively heavy to remain.

The government’s enquiry aboriginal recovered that the disposable grounds “does not enactment generalised allegations that front-line aesculapian and nursing unit simply abandoned the newborns”.

Ask Noreen what a caregiver is to a newborn separated from its mother, and she has 1 answer: its archetypal mother.

“A parent who gives commencement endures a symptom nary 1 other tin basal successful for,” she said. “But erstwhile a babe is successful our hands, nary 1 other is watching implicit it the mode we are, checking their oxygen, their feeding, whether they’re breathing right, each 2 hours, immoderate other is happening astir us. That is wherefore we are their archetypal mother.”

Noreen’s phone, near down successful the nursery during the fire. Hospital guards recovered it and returned it to her the adjacent time [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]

‘I americium precise blessed with the children’

Noreen, 38, has spent 21 years successful authorities nursing, the past 17 of them astatine PIMS. She trained successful Karachi close aft school, astatine the property of 17, before a transportation brought her to PIMS successful 2009. She has ne'er married.

“Thank God, I americium precise blessed with the children,” she said, erstwhile asked astir it directly.

Born successful Punjab’s metropolis of Sahiwal, she was 1 of 7 children. Her father, Victor John, was a pastor; helium died erstwhile she was successful the eighth grade. Two of her sisters person died; a third, besides a nurse, lives successful Lahore.

Her mother, 83, a retired authorities schoolhouse teacher who is hard of hearing, lives successful Lahore with 1 of Noreen’s brothers.

Noreen herself has lived successful the PIMS unit hostel, crossed from the ward wherever she works, for astir of the past 2 decades.

With her ain telephone trapped wrong the burning ward, Noreen could not telephone her household herself.

Noreen’s niece happened to beryllium staying with her that week. It was the niece the warden found, and who got connection to the household successful Lahore: Noreen was safe.

‘It’s ever the 2 of us’

On the greeting of the fire, Noreen and Sister Nasreen were the lone 2 nurses connected work successful a nursery holding 15 babies, backed by 2 doctors, 1 of them 2 rooms away. She says it was not an antithetic night.

“Sometimes determination are 20 babies, sometimes 25,” she said. “It’s ever the 2 of us.”

Doctors connected her ward enactment 36-hour shifts, she said, arriving astatine 8am and going disconnected work astatine 2pm the pursuing day.

Handover betwixt nursing shifts, checking each baby’s medication, feeding and captious signs, takes astir 45 minutes fixed the numbers involved. The outgo of drugs tin besides tally to tens of thousands of Pakistani rupees per injection, each provided by PIMS to its patients.

“Sometimes we get a break, sometimes we don’t,” she said. “When the workload is heavy, adjacent the h2o we transportation with america goes backmost location untouched.”

No occurrence drill had been tally successful the nursery earlier August 26, not adjacent aft an earlier occurrence astatine a adjacent PIMS hostel successful July.

Asked what is required aft an incidental similar this, she does not hesitate.

“We should each person due drills. If a occurrence starts, everyone needs to already cognize what to do.”

She lists what should follow: extinguishers wrong reach, cross-ventilation to wide smoke, and a rehearsed evacuation way for babies who cannot locomotion oregon telephone retired for help.

Broken windows astatine the PIMS gathering lodging the nursery, hours aft the August 26 occurrence [Abid Hussain/Al Jazeera]

‘Golden letters successful history’

Until the fire, astir cipher extracurricular her ain ward knew her name, Noreen says.

“I person astir nary beingness successful the main hospital,” she said. “Nobody determination knows who I am. I enactment successful the nursery, successful my ain department. I ne'er imagined that redeeming 1 babe would instrumentality maine this far.”

She travelled connected Thursday to conscionable the premier curate successful a car the authorities sent.

During the meeting, Sharif called her “the nation’s daughter” and said her enactment would beryllium remembered “in aureate letters” successful Pakistan’s history.

He confirmed Noreen volition formally person the country’s Sitara-i-Khidmat (Star of Service) grant astatine a ceremonial connected March 23, and handed her a cheque for 10 cardinal Pakistani rupees ($36,000).

She utilized the gathering to accidental what she had already told her ain colleagues privately.

“My chap nurses enactment with conscionable arsenic overmuch dedication,” she said. “This was a precise heartbreaking incident.”

‘I haven’t slept since that day’

Eight days on, Noreen is unwell. She has had a fever of 102 to 103 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9C to 39.4C) connected and off, and a cough she says came from fume she breathed successful from the occurrence that greeting — a greeting she volition ne'er forget. She takes an antibiotic and sleeping tablets astatine night. Neither has worked arsenic it should.

“I haven’t slept, not since that day,” she said. “I instrumentality the tablets, I portion the cough syrup, but slumber doesn’t come. I adjacent my eyes, and I unfastened them again.”

Asked whether the aforesaid dawn displacement keeps replaying successful her mind, she did not request the question finished.

“The full incident. The aforesaid babies. The mothers’ screams, and the babies’ screams, however they indispensable person screamed. Those are the things that don’t fto maine sleep.”

She was signed disconnected connected aesculapian remainder lone the time earlier this interview. Colleagues person been steadying her since.

“I would conscionable commencement crying, sitting there,” she said. “They supported maine similar I was a child.”

But the nights are inactive hers alone.

“It comes backmost to the aforesaid thing,” she said. “When I’m successful the hostel, erstwhile I’m alone, it each comes back.”

Nurse Razia Noreen meets Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif successful Islamabad connected September 3, 2026, wherever helium presented her with a cheque for 10 cardinal Pakistani rupees ($36,000) and announced she volition person the Sitara-i-Khidmat (Star of Service) civilian grant [Handout/Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office]

‘That, I regret’

The babe Noreen carried retired — she hasn’t been named yet, according to the caregiver — remains successful the neonatal intensive attraction portion a week on.

Born preterm astatine conscionable implicit a kilogramme (2 pounds, 3 ounces), the babe was already unwell earlier the fire. She remains critical.

Noreen met the baby’s parents for the archetypal clip the time earlier the gathering with the premier minister.

“She [the baby’s parent Asifa] hugged maine and thanked me, and cried, and I cried with her,” Noreen said, “because for the remainder of the children, my bosom is inactive precisely wherever it was.”

She has told the parent the aforesaid happening she tells herself.

“I said, look, your kid survived specified a immense storm, she volition past what comes next, too. You pray, and I volition pray.”

Asked what she would archer different nurses, Noreen urged them to enactment with honesty and without conditions.

“When you enactment determination with honesty, the reward comes eventually,” she said. “It came to maine aft 21 years. Work with the aforesaid loyalty. That is our existent strength.”

Then, unprompted, she returned to the 14 babies who died.

“I bash regret it,” she said. “I could not prevention the remainder of the children. That, I regret.”