“A committee has been formed to investigate the incident, and so far we don’t know the reasons of the incident,” Dr. Ahmed al-Hadari, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We are waiting the results of the investigations.”
After years of unsolved tragedy and unanswered demands for improvements, hardly anyone here believes official promises anymore.
“Such tragedies have become normal to Iraqi officials, and this case will be closed, just as the other ones,” said Adnan Hussein, the acting editor in chief at Al Mada, one of Baghdad’s daily newspapers.
In their agony and tears as they gathered outside Yarmouk hospital on Wednesday morning, families of the dead babies were inconsolable. Some even made accusations of arson, though there was no evidence to support that claim.
“There was screaming,” said Mariam Thijeel, the mother of Yaman, describing the scene at the hospital early Wednesday. “The power was cut off, and then the doors got locked on us, and there was no man in the newborn section, and we could not save any babies.”
She described a scene of panic and chaos, and said that people in the hospital had tried desperately to find someone with keys to the hospital wing that was on fire, the doors of which were locked. “We asked the help of one of the employees, but she said, ‘I cannot help you with anything, because it’s a fire,’ ” Ms. Thijeel said.
Zainab Ali, Jafar’s mother, said: “Today I have come to see him and I was told, ‘A fire happened in the newborn unit, and your baby died.’” She said she had heard that none of the fire extinguishers worked.
A third mother, Shayma Husain, came to the hospital looking for her infant son, Haider Mohammad Azeez, who had not been accounted for. Angry and tearful, she compared the leaders of the government-run hospital
to the militants of the Islamic State — saying, in effect, that politicians and terrorists were both responsible for Iraq’s endless trauma.
SOURCE:CNN NEWS
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