JOHOR BARU: General surgeon Dr Narendra Balasekaran (pic) was on his rounds on the fourth floor of Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) with his medical team at about 9am when he heard the alarm going off.
There was a fire at the ICU two floors below.
Dr Narendra rushed there and saw medical staff evacuating female patients from a surgical ward adjoining the ICU.
“I was horrified when told that there were seven patients trapped inside the ICU ward,” he said.
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Noticing thick smoke billowing from the burning ICU area, he and three other doctors decided to rush in to help.
“I grabbed a blanket and wet it before dashing into the ward which was dark and filled with smoke,” he said, adding that it was very hot inside.
When they reached the first patient, a woman, they just grabbed the bed and pushed her out.
“The bed was hot and I had to wrap the metal part with my towel,” he said, adding that they were elated when they rescued the first woman.
Dr Narendra added that they then decided to go get the rest of the patients as they wanted to see if there were any more survivors.
“By then, with the help of firemen, all the six patients had been brought out,” he said.
He added that some of the victims could have died due to smoke inhalation.
The other doctors with him were Dr Shah Jahan, Dr Rishi Haran and Dr Ashok Kannan.
Dr Narendra said that they all got hold of some gas masks before rushing in.
“We just wanted to do our best to rescue these patients,” he said.
Dr Narendra said he was upset and disappointed that there was a lot of speculation on social media that doctors and medical staff had died in the fire.
“We did our best to save our patients and all the medical staff and nurses did their best and followed the evacuation procedures,” he said.
He revealed that he suffered some minor burns.
Dr Narendra described the fire as something horrifying and traumatising in his 10-year career as a doctor.
Meanwhile, staff nurse Nur Idayu Jahan, 26, had just reported for duty and was preparing the equipment for surgery in an operating theatre on level two when a colleague rushed in and informed her and others about the fire.
“We just dropped everything and rushed to help.
“At that time, the lifts were still working so the patients connected to heavy equipment were brought out first while those who could walk used the stairs,” she said.
Nur Idayu, who started working at the hospital three years ago, said they did their best to evacuate everyone.
Another male nurse in his 20s said he had just headed out of the hospital block when he heard an explosion and glass shattering.
He said he turned and saw smoke coming out of the windows and rushed up to the second floor to help.
“By then I could already see doctors, nurses and hospital staff grabbing the patients and pushing hospital beds out of the ICU.
“We were afraid the patients might slip and fall as they were quite frail so we tried to help them down the stairs as quickly as possible,” he said.