Mumbai: Kandivli fire victims were moved in the middle of the night

Late in the night families of two Kandivli fire victims were asked to relocate their patients from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital Shatabdi hospital in the area to Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Chinchpokli a 32km distance they had to travel for better treatment This move was necessitated by the lack of a specialised burn unit and the unavailability of doctors at the former facilityWhile BMC health authorities stated that this decision was made in the best interest of the patients the families of 24yearold Rajeshwari Bhartare who had 90 per cent burn injuries and Laxmi Yadav 40 previously misidentified as Laxmi Bura by authorities with 45 to 50 90 per cent burn injuries expressed that this decision added to their traumaFrom right Rajeshwarirsquos brother Krishna Bhartare along with their mother Devkabai and other relativesThey expected continuous medical treatment at the same hospital from the beginning to the end ldquoA senior official from BMC came to us and said we will have to shift the patients to Kasturbardquo said Pravin Mule cousin of Yavatmalbased Rajeshwari The official he referred to was Additional Commissioner Health Dr Sudhakar Shinde ldquoKasturba has a dedicated facility for burn patients and we made that decision keeping in mind the welfare of the patientsrdquo Dr Shinde saidThe patients were earlier being treated in the ICU unit of Shatabdi hospital along with other critical patients exposing them to infection ldquoIt just happened that I have been in Mumbai for the past year If I wasnrsquot here who would have taken care of this moving aroundrdquo Mule said Rajeshwari worked as a caretaker for the elderly mother of Dr Glory Valthaty a Scotland resident and citizen who was killed along with her sixyearold son in the fire at the Pavan Dham Veena Santoor buildingAlso read Mumbai lsquoDoctor had come from Scotland as mum was unwellrsquoHer parents are farmers back in Ramunaik Tanda village in Umerkhed taluka Yavatmal district and she had been working at the Valthaty house for the past few months after being transferred from Hyderabad by Curans Care amp Wellness in the same city On the other hand it had been only 15 days since Laxmi started doing domestic work in the same house as Rajeshwari ldquoWe stay in Borivli and my mother was a temporary replacement for another worker who had gone to their villagerdquo said 17yearold Mahesh Laxmirsquos sonHope for survivalWhile at Kasturba Rajeshwarirsquos and Laxmirsquos families clung to the hope that the previous nightrsquos ordeal would ultimately prove worthwhile ldquoMy child has suffered so much and still she is the one consoling us telling us she will be all right soon in a feeble voicerdquo said Devkabai Rajeshwarirsquos mother Similar is the condition of LaxmiDevkabai and her husband Bharat were working on a farm when they heard the news from their 21yearold son Krishna He had been in Amravati for the last couple of years preparing for police recruitment exams ldquoI received a call from didi when the fire broke out She was panicking and trying to escape and after that call there was no communicationrdquo Krishna saidRajeshwari has been the pillar of their family earning about Rs 15000 a month and still sending Rs 5000 for her brotherrsquos education and some additional money to her parents back home The family had to borrow Rs 15000 from their fellow villagers to arrange for a vehicle that would bring them to the city on an emergency basisNeither Laxmirsquos nor Rajeshwarirsquos kin knew the whereabouts of their workplace Police had to track down their families Since then both families have been running from pillar to post to save their loved ones The two families said the patients were being taken care of by the hospital staff and nurses but no doctor visited the facility as they were on Dussehra leave Dr Mangesh Pawar in charge of the burns unit at Kasturba was unavailable for comment2No of patients shifted to Kasturba hospital40Age of Laxmi Yadav