Kottayam: When 24-year-old Remya called
her home here from AMRI hospital in Kolkata in the wee hours
of Friday, her mother did not think that she was hearing from
her daughter for the last time.
Though Remya said she saw smoke coming from the ground
floors of the hospital where she had been working as nurse,
Usha did not even remotely think that her daughter was going
to be among scores of victims of the devastating fire.
But only when TV channels started showing the visuals of
the inferno, Usha realised that life of Remya was in real
danger.
She told her mother that the hospital was filled with thick
smoke and fume and it was very difficult for her to breath,
a close relative here said.
In fact, before she completed the talk the telephone line
got disconnected. Later, it was a military nurse from Kolkata
who informed Remya`s relatives that she was one of the two
Malayali nurses died in the fire.
The other Keralite nurse died in the fire was Vineetha
(24), hailing from a poor family also from Kottayam. She
joined AMRI hospital just two months back after quitting a
hospital in Chandigarh.
According to Remya`s relatives, she had visited them three
months back and stayed for a few days before returning to
Kolkata.
Remya, who hailed from a family of straitened means, was
attending a old patient when the fire broke out.
Her father, a daily wage earner, died before Remya completed
her nursing course. It was with great difficulty that her
mother and brother supported her to complete the course.
90 people, most of them patients in sleep, were yesterday
choked to death in the fire in the multi-speciality private
hospital.
PTI
