In the early morning hours of a Wednesday in Islamabad, a mechanical failure inside a hospital nursery became one of the gravest tragedies in recent Pakistani medical history. An air-conditioner compressor exploded in the neonatal ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, igniting a fire that claimed fifteen newborn lives before rescue teams could intervene — leaving only one infant among sixteen to survive. The catastrophe asks a question that transcends this single ward: how well do the institutions entrusted with life's most fragile beginnings actually protect them?
Fire at Islamabad hospital kills 15 newborns in nursery tragedy
15 newborns died in the fire; only 1 of 16 infants in the nursery was rescued.