The dysfunctional pump at IGIC, Patna, on Friday afternoon. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Dec. 21: For 32-odd hours, they literally battled for life, and, survived.

But survival of 600 people, including at least 250 patients, was not easy at Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology (IGIC). Relatives of the patients ran for water everywhere. Forget a drop to drink, the inpatients could not even use the stinking toilets this morning.

It all started around 10am yesterday, as the lone water pump stopped functioning. Malti Devi, 55, admitted to one of the wards of the speciality hospital, could not make out what to do. “At first, I avoided going there as I did not want to use such a dirty toilet. I also tried to control myself for several hours but at last I had to give in. And, imagine the condition there,” she shivered while narrating her harrowing experience.

Some of the patients’ relatives were seen taking them — with channels of saline fitted onto their wrists — to a pay-and-use toilet near Tata Ward of Patna Medical College and Hospital on foot. All that they could utter is apathy of officials at the government hospital where the pump set had been burnt because of its round-the-clock duty.

Mohammad Syed Ansari (30), whose elder brother Zakir Hussain is undergoing treatment there, said: “I cannot tell you how much problems we had to face since yesterday morning. We did not get any food at the hospital canteen in the past 24 hours as all the taps were running dry. The condition of the toilets had become more pathetic. The lone pay-and-use toilet in the vicinity had also turned dirty with hundreds of people making a queue there.”

Incidentally, the hospital doctors did not come to the rescue of patients with everyone playing the passing-the-buck game. Dr S.N. Dwivedi said: “It is not our responsibility. If the pump is not working, the health department is supposed to restore it.”

When the health department was informed about it, minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey swung into action with a rebuke to the officers concerned. “I directed the officers concerned to rectify the problem. The technicians were called and the pump was repaired this evening. The department also made arrangement of a water tanker for the patients and their relatives. I would make sure that no such problem arises in the future,” he said.