Razia
Noreen
and
her
colleagues
had
just
checked
on
the
15
newborns
in
their
care
at
the
hospital
nursery
in
Islamabad
and
were
preparing
injections
for
some
of
them
in
an
adjacent
room
when
she
noticed
something
unusual:
flames.
The
nurse
dropped
the
syringe
and
ran
into
the
nursery.
She
lifted
a
baby
into
her
arms,
and
pressed
the
child
against
her
chest
to
shield
it
from
the
spreading
fire
at
the
Pakistan
Institute
of
Medical
Sciences,
a
major
government
hospital,
which
was
already
filling
with
thick
smoke.
Eight
seconds
later
—
as
was
captured
on
dramatic
CCTV
footage
—
she
emerged
and
handed
the
newborn
to
a
doctor
in
a
nearby
room.
Without
thinking,
she
then
turned
back
toward
the
flames,
but
it
was
too
late.
“I
wanted
to
save
the
others,”
Noreen
told
the
Associated
Press
at
the
hospital
staff
hostel
where
she
lives.
“I
did
not
lose
hope,”
she
said.
But
the
nursery
was
rapidly
becoming
impossible
to
enter.
Noreen
and
another
nurse
dropped
to
the
floor,
where
the
smoke
was
thinner,
and
tried
to
crawl
through
the
doorway.
In
her
first
interview
with
international
media
—
after
briefly
speaking
to
local
media
over
the
weekend
—
Noreen
described
how
she
could
see
nothing
ahead
of
her.
The
smoke
choked
her,
and
she
began
coughing
so
violently
that
she
struggled
to
breathe.
Still,
she
tried
to
move
forward
until
the
flames
forced
her
back.
Within
minutes,
she
learned
that
the
other
14
newborns
were
dead.
She
collapsed
to
the
floor
in
shock,
she
said.
The
baby
she
carried
out
was
the
sole
survivor.
A
National
Hero
A
51-second
clip
of
CCTV
footage
from
the
Aug.
26
fire
showed
Noreen
running
into
the
nursery
and
emerging
with
the
newborn
in
her
arms.
A
government
inquiry
said
she
was
inside
the
room
for
just
8
seconds
and
that
the
conditions
in
the
nursery
“deteriorated
catastrophically
within
approximately
2
minutes.”
Those
8
seconds
have
led
many
Pakistanis
to
hail
Noreen
as
a
national
hero.
The
government
has
announced
that
she
will
receive
the
Sitara-i-Khidmat,
or
Star
of
Service,
one
of
Pakistan’s
most
prestigious
civil
awards,
along
with
a
financial
reward.
Hospital
and
district
officials
initially
said
an
exploding
air-conditioning
unit
caused
the
fire,
and
later
the
hospital
said
a
blast
involving
a
nebulizer
sparked
the
blaze.
A
government
inquiry
identified
serious
failures
in
fire
safety
and
the
hospital’s
emergency
response.
Eight
officials
have
been
suspended
and
disciplinary
proceedings
initiated
against
them.
Nurse
Says
It
Was
Her
‘Duty’
Noreen
is
a
Christian,
part
of
a
small
religious
minority
in
overwhelmingly
Muslim
Pakistan.
Members
of
the
country’s
Christian
community
have
joined
Pakistanis
across
religious
lines
in
praising
her
bravery.
But
Noreen
does
not
describe
what
she
did
as
an
act
of
heroism.
She
speaks
of
it
as
the
instinctive
response
of
a
nurse
and
a
mother.
“Can
any
mother
watch
a
child
burning
in
a
fire?”
she
asked.
“No,”
she
answered.
“Mothers
do
not
do
favors
for
their
children.
It
is
their
duty.”
Her
rescue
has
been
celebrated
across
Pakistan,
but
Noreen
remains
consumed
by
the
babies
she
could
not
reach.
She
said
she
has
barely
slept
since
the
fire.
When
she
approaches
the
nursery,
memories
of
the
flames
and
the
children
overwhelm
her.
At
times,
she
said,
she
feels
as
if
she
can
still
hear
their
cries
and
collapses
to
the
ground.
“The
deaths
of
those
children
have
traumatized
me,”
she
said.
“It
may
take
me
years
to
recover.”
Noreen
said
she
was
still
physically
ill
from
the
ordeal.
She
told
AP
she
had
a
fever
of
103
degrees
Fahrenheit
(39.4
Celsius)
but
agreed
to
the
interview
because
she
wanted
to
explain
what
happened.
“Those
babies
do
not
let
me
sleep,”
she
said.
She
said
nurses
become
like
mothers
when
newborns
are
brought
into
their
care
and
separated
from
their
own
mothers.
They
feed
the
babies,
administer
their
medication,
and
watch
over
them.
She
Said
She
Just
Acted
as
a
Mom
Noreen
said
it
took
her
only
a
moment
to
decide
to
enter
the
burning
nursery.
“I
quickly
decided
that
I
would
do
my
job,”
she
said.
“The
mothers
had
entrusted
their
babies
to
us.”
“I
acted
as
a
mother,”
she
added.
“I
did
not
care
about
my
life.”
Noreen
said
she
was
grateful
to
the
Prime
Minister
Shehbaz
Sharif
and
the
Pakistani
people
for
honoring
her.
“But
I
did
not
do
anything
for
a
reward
or
money,”
she
said.
Noreen
said
that
when
she
entered
the
burning
nursery,
she
did
not
know
whether
she
would
come
out
alive.
“I
had
only
one
mission:
This
is
the
time
to
save
lives,”
she
said.
“My
aim
was
to
save
all
the
children.
I
did
not
think
about
my
own
safety
for
even
a
second.”
Then
her
voice
broke
again.
She
had
a
message
for
the
mothers
whose
14
newborns
died
in
the
fire.
“Please
forgive
me
for
not
being
able
to
save
your
babies,”
Noreen
said
through
tears.
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