Sister Mandakini Nagilkar has been a nurse for 25 years. She says there were close to 100 nurses, including student nurses, ready on call that Black Monday. There was so much blood and so many dead bodies, she remembers.
As doctors and surgeons went about administering treatment, the nurses were busy managing wards, cleaning wounds and changing patients' clothes.
In times of emergency the hospital can arrange for a 30-bed ward in 30 minutes. Each ward has about five nurses attached to it who assist doctors and interns. Says intern Dr Naval Daver, "We are incomplete without the nurses."
Twenty-three of the remaining blast patients are now in the right wing of Ward 18. Dean Daver's team takes four rounds of the ward each day. There are four nurses for day duty and two for night duty.
The hospital faxes a daily report on the progress of the blasts victims each evening to the state home ministry. Dean Daver says he has received instructions from the Maharashtra government that all expenses for their treatment will be borne by the State.
Back
Next
Also see: Tragedy at the Kumbh
Tell us what you think of this slide show
E-mail this page to a friend