Sunday, May 16, 2021

Infants bundled off; No one hurt in PGH fire. Inquirer Newsletter May 17, 2021

UNSCATHED The Immaculate Conception chapel at the Philippine General Hospital offers comfort and relief for new-born babies and pediatric patients who were evacuated out of their rooms when a fire broke out at a building for paying patients in the wee hours of Sunday. CONTRIBUTED/ FR. MARLITO OCON, SJ

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COVID-19 is digitally transforming how we live and work. Amid this evolution, highly digital sectors such as e-commerce emerged as transformation leaders while physically intensive ones like energy, mining and shipping were more adversely impacted. —STORY BY Carlos Reyes

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JERUSALEM—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blaming Hamas for starting nearly a week of hostilities by firing rockets at Israel, said on Saturday Israel would continue to strike in Gaza as long as necessary and do its utmost to avoid civilian casualties. —STORY BY REUTERS AND AFP

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Infants bundled off; no ONE hurt in PGH fire

By Meg Adonis

Patients sat on wheelchairs and hospital beds, parents took over pews with their newborn babies, and workers lugged oxygen tanks elsewhere at the chapel of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila early Sunday, all anxiously waiting for the fire that hit a building of the state-owned medical center to die down so they could safely return to their rooms.

“The PGH chapel became an instant evacuation [center] for pediatric patients and newborn babies,” Fr. Marlito Ocon, SJ, hospital chaplain, wrote on his Facebook post.

At a time when the country is yet to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, a fire of still undetermined cause struck the building for paying patients at PGH, one of the Philippines’ only three coronavirus referral hospitals, around 1 a.m. on Sunday.

The fire was declared out nearly five hours later at 5:41 a.m. without any reports of injuries or casualties, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said. It placed damage to property at P300,000. Within minutes after the fire broke out, the Immaculate Conception Chapel was packed with 35 newborn babies—mostly premature or whose mothers had very difficult pregnancies and deliveries—as their mothers and attending nurses lugged behind them oxygen tanks.

Ocon told the Inquirer that some nurses also resorted to manually pumping oxygen for their patients who had difficulty breathing and were hurriedly evacuated from their rooms at the pay hospital.

Out of the 35 patients, he said, one had just gotten a heart surgery. “Our nurses and doctors are excellent here. Even if some of the newborn patients were intubated or needed oxygen to breathe, they all survived. All 35 patients [evacuated at the chapel] survived the fire,” Ocon said.

The PGH Chapel, located approximately 300 meters from the Central Block, served as a temporary evacuation center for newborn babies confined at the state-run hospital’s Nicu (neonatal intensive care unit), as well as elderly patients on wheelchairs. —WITH REPORTS FROM DJ YAP, JEROME ANING AND REUTERS INQ

Editorial

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The recession that began last year has now extended to five straight quarters after the economy contracted by 4.2 percent in the first three months of 2021 due to the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net