Vajpayee responding to treatment; Bhagwat, Manmohan visit AIIMS
New Delhi, June 12: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on Tuesday responding well to his treatment for urinary tract infection at the AIIMS, which is seeing a beeline of leaders from various political parties wanting to enquire about his health.
"His condition is stable. He is responding to treatment and is on injectable antibiotics. All vital parameters are stable. He will continue to be in hospital till the infection is controlled," AIIMS media and protocol division Chairperson Aarti Vij said on Tuesday.
Vajpayee was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Monday. His hospitalisation triggered VIP visits including that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday.
The news of Vajpayee's condition being stable did little to slow the flow of prominent leaders to the hospital. Former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat visited him on Tuesday.
Among other leaders who made a visit to the hospital are Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, MDMK leader Vaiko and Union Ministers Ashwini Choubey, Vijay Goel and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu enquired about Vajpayee's health. Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who visited AIIMS on Monday, was again at the hospital on Tuesday. Another BJP stalwart L.K. Advani also visited the hospital on Monday.
A team of senior doctors under the supervision of AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria is conducting the tests on Vajpayee, who is bed-ridden for many years. Guleria, a pulmonologist, has been a personal physician to Vajpayee for long.
Modi called on Vajpayee on Monday evening and interacted with his family. He spoke to doctors and enquired about the former Prime Minister's health. Modi was at AIIMS for about 50 minutes.
Several leaders across the country wished Vajpayee a speedy recovery.
"Prayers for a speedy and complete recovery of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A gentle and a fine person that he is, he continues to motivate us through his timeless speeches and poems," Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav said: "I prayed for the fast recovery of Vajpayeeji. May God keep him healthy and give him a long life." Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu also prayed for his good health.
Union Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted: "We pray for speedy recovery of Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji, he has been a guiding light for the whole country."
Vajpayees' admirers and BJP activists held prayers at different places in Uttar Pradesh. A special 'havan' was conducted in Kanpur by party workers. BJP and Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh members took part in a 'Deerghayu Yagya' at Gonda.
Vajpayee, 93, who was Prime Minister briefly in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004, retreated from active politics over the last decade due to failing health.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
