When two-year-old Ruhi called out for her mother and her sister in the intensive care unit of Patna Medical College and Hospital on Monday, tears welled up in the eyes of her father and relatives.

Four members of little Ruhi's family, including her mother Aarti Devi and sister Anushka, whom Ruhi used to call "Lado", died when the boat they were in capsized on the Ganga on Saturday night.

Ruhi, who was also on the ill-fated boat, was discharged on Monday after being treated for 36 hours in the hospital's ICU.

Half-an-hour before her release, she cried out for her mother and sister. Her father Vinod, who does paint jobs, tried to divert her attention.

"Ruhi will take time to realise her mother is no more. Even we are finding it hard to come to terms with it," said Vinod.

On Saturday, nine members of Vinod's extended family had gone to the fair/amusement park that had come up on the Sabbalpur Diara. Ruhi's brother Piyush and Vinod's sister's son Prince came back by a different boat.

The other seven family members had boarded the overloaded boat that capsized. Vinod's sister's daughters Anjali and Arpita were also among the 24 persons who died in the tragedy.

Vinod's family blamed the administration for failing to ensure proper security arrangements, but were grateful to the PMCH doctors for saving Ruhi.

"The doctors here took great care of my daughter," Vinod said. "When we rushed here around 7pm on Saturday, we found out that Ruhi's clothes were changed. A heater was also put in her room because she was shivering with cold. Right from providing medicines to saline water, the doctors and the nurses did everything without any delay."

Ruhi's uncle Santosh Kumar added: "My mother (Narmada Devi) and sister Usha Devi told us that there were hardly any cops at Sabbalpur Diara to look after the arrangements. How can the administration organise such a mega event without proper security arrangements?"

Vinod said the administration had given his family a cheque of Rs 4 lakh for each dead person.

"Can the money bring back my wife, my daughter, my sister's daughters? The government should rather stop such celebrations when it cannot make necessary arrangements," Vinod fumed.

He said the PMCH doctors had told him to bring Ruhi back after three days for follow-up treatment.

"She has to take few strong medicines, but we will ensure she does," said Vinod.

Dr A.K. Jaiswal, head of the paediatrics department at PMCH, said Ruhi was out of danger, which is why she was discharged. "When she was brought here, her condition was serious," Jaiswal said.

"She had difficulty in breathing as water had entered her lungs. We also had difficulty in finding her pulse. She was given saline and put on oxygen. Now she is okay but we are continuing her medicines to prevent her from developing a lung infection." According to Ruhi's family, it was her grandmother, 57-year-old Narmada Devi, who saved the little girl.

"My mother was performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save her life," said Vinod.