Parents of a week-old twin girl who died four days after a blaze ravaged state-run ESIC hospital here last week alleged on December 26 the authorities slashed the Rs 10 lakh compensation payable to them to Rs 2 lakh, saying "the premature baby was anyway going to die naturally".

A hospital official said they had issued two cheques each of Rs 2 lakh as payout, apparently for the deceased girl and her infant brother who was also injured in the incident. After the parents raised allegations, the official said they have asked tehsildar (a Revenue department official) concerned to prepare a fresh report in consultation with the medical superintendent of the hospital.

The fire occurred on December 17 in the ESIC hospital located at Marol in suburban Andheri in which 11 people died. Union Labour Ministry had announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for the next of the kin of the deceased and Rs 2 lakh to each of the seriously injured persons. About 175 people were injured in the blaze.

The mother of the deceased girl, alleged the hospital authorities denied them full compensation of Rs 10 lakh, saying "the premature baby was anyway going to die naturally". The woman had delivered twins, a boy and a girl, three days before the fire mishap.

Her son is doing fine, she said. The woman claimed her daughter, whom the couple had not even named, might have died while being shifted to Holy Spirit Hospital when the blaze swept through the ESIC Hospital on December 24. "She was taken away from the ventilator support in the ESIC Hospital during fire and was being shifted to the Holy Spirit hospital. She might have died because of interruption in ventilatory support coupled with smoke inhalation", she said.

The baby girl died in Holy Spirit hospital four days after admission. "ESIC hospital authorities said that chances of survival of my daughter were very less as she was a premature baby. They said she was going to die naturally (and) not due to burn injuries", the woman told PTI while fighting back her tears.

Any monetary compensation is not going to bring back my daughter, but refusing us the full compensation is like rubbing salt on our wounds, the woman said, adding that she and her husband would fight against this "injustice". 

According to the hospital official, they had issued two cheques of Rs 2 lakh each to the parents. This effectively means that the hospital authorities are counting the deceased girl as a seriously injured victim of the fire. Another cheque is meant for her infant brother.

The woman said she would not realise the cheque given in the name of her daughter. "We will honour the cheque of Rs. 2 lakhs issued in the name of my son, but not the other cheque", she said. Meanwhile, the hospital official told PTI this evening that the cheques were prepared before the death of the girl, as "we wanted to distribute them to the victims and their kin before Christmas (December 25)".

"After coming across this (parents' allegations), we have asked tehsildar concerned to compile a fresh report in consultation with the medical superintendent of the hospital", he said, adding that they are looking into the matter positively and sympathetically.

However, the official refused comment on the specific allegations levelled by the girl's parents. "We don't want to comment on what her parents have said. We can understand their pain", he added. North East Mumbai MP Kirit Somaiya claimed that the ESIC has agreed to issue the balance compensation at the earliest.

"As a chairman of a parliament committee in Labour Ministry which controls ESIC, I took up this issue and spoke with the officials concerned. ESIC has agreed to issue the balance compensation at the earliest," the MP told PTI after speaking with the parents of the deceased girl.

"We are sad about the ESIC hospital Mumbai fire incident & the death of newborn baby girl due to fire in ESIC hospital. I discussed issue of compensation with Minister and officials of ESIC. They are releasing the balance of Rs 8 lakh immediately to victim's family," Somaiya tweeted.

When contacted for his expert views, Dr Suresh Birajdar, Joint Director NICU & PICU at Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, said that all premature babies do not necessarily die. "I don't know how the baby girl was doing (medically) before the (ESIC hospital) fire, but all I can say is that under-weight babies born prematurely have less chances of survival compared to the normal babies. Their chances improve if they are referred to any advanced NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) centre", he said.