PMCH nurses with the Gandaman children before they were released from the hospital. Telegraph picture

The nurses who worked tirelessly to save the Gandaman Primary School children will be felicitated this Independence Day.

Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) has decided to honour five among the 242 nurses who provided the best care to the children last month. Recommendations have been sought for conferring the Gaurav Samman on the nurses who worked through the crisis without expectations or any dividend. The administration is working on preparing the final list.

Sources in the hospital administration said during the critical days of the midday meal tragedy, the nurses displayed their best management skills.

In the initial period, every 10-15 minutes, the Dharmasati-Gandaman children had to be administered atropine injection so that their lives could be saved. The nurses attending to the children in different shifts ensured that they did not miss out on administering the injections on time. Their alertness, the doctors said, was one of the reasons the health hub was able to save the children.

Matron Meena Kumari is happy with the health hub’s announcement.

“It feels great that our hospital wants to recognise the efforts of the nurses. It will really motivate them to work harder.

“We (all the nurses) knew that it was not going to be an easy task (caring for the children) but we knew whatever we could do would be worth it. So we never shied away from the hard work,” she added.

PMCH superintendent Amar Kant Jha Amar, who decided on felicitating the five nurses, said he was very happy with the way they worked through the crisis.

“We had never seen this kind of performance from the nurses during the earlier tragedies, especially in Chhath last year that also demanded disaster management skills from them. But this time, the way they worked round the clock and cared for each of the Gandaman children was excellent. Many of them continuously worked for two shifts without taking breaks,” said Amar.

He added: “We were quite surprised to see them work like this and so I came up with the idea to felicitate them. It can motivate them to give a similar kind of performance in another time of crisis.”

Matron Meena Kumari, sources said, has provided a list of nurses she feels should be felicitated to S.R. Choudhary, the head of paediatrics department.

Choudhary told The Telegraph: “The matron has provided us with a list of nurses but the final decision has to be taken by the panel of doctors in the department. We are really happy to announce this award. The nurses deserve it.”

One of the paediatricians, Nigam Prakash Narayan, said the health hub has invited dignitaries for the programme during which the nurses would be conferred the Gaurav Samman.

“We have invited Vyasji, principal secretary, health, for the award ceremony to be held at the PMCH on August 15. He has agreed to come. We are planning to hand over the awards to the nurses through Vyasji. This will make the day even more special for them,” he said.