Nurse who helped save more than 30 babies in PGH fire narrates 'longest nightshift duty' of her career

What would you do if a fire broke out in your building and you had several babies in your care?

In a live interview on "Unang Hirit," pediatric nurse Kathrina Bianca Macababbad narrated what she called the "longest nightshift duty" of her life.

When fire struck a building of the Philippine General Hospital early Sunday morning, Macababbad and her team had to make five trips to and from the pediatric ward just to get more than 30 babies to safety.

According to Macababbad, she had six babies in her immediate care and could only initially bring one of them with her as they were evacuating because the remaining five were on oxygen and ventilators.

It was only upon her first evacuation when she realized nearly half of the 35 babies in their department were connected to oxygen and ventilators and needed rescuing.

The nurse stressed how incredibly important it was for them to act quickly in those moments, especially since many of their young patients were in a delicate state and needed ventilators to survive.

"Sa area po namin marami pong baby na naka-intubate. 'Yun po yung pinaka-(nakakatakot) 'yung pang-limang beses po na akyat namin, kasi 'yung mga naiwan na po, 'yung mga naka-intubate kasi po. Sila po 'yung mga pinaka-critical..." Macababbad said.

("We had intubated babies in our area. That was the scariest. We had to go up and down our ward five times because the intubated babies were the last to go. They are the most critical ones.")

"Kasi po, nakapatay po 'yung oxygen at wala pong kuryente kaya po yung mga baby po talaga ay mamatay po kung talagang maiiwan," she added.

("There was no electricity so the oxygen was off. The babies won't make it if they were left there.")

"Kaya po a'yun, do or die, binaba na po namin talaga kasi, kung iiwan po namin sila doon..." she trailed off.

("It was a do or die. We really had to bring them down because if we left them...")

Macababbad was busy bathing the infants when they were told to evacuate the building just past midnight. The nurse said she couldn't believe it at first, but she eventually smelled the smoke.

Macababbad also admitted feeling scared at first, but she wasted no time to save the children first.

"Sa totoo lang po, hindi ko po ikakaila na nakakatakot din po kasi, syempre po sunog po 'yun. Marami pong pwedeng mangyari, pero kasi kung 'yung takot po yung papairalin, wala pong mangyayari. Sino po 'yung tutulong sa mga babies na 'yon na hindi naman po nila kayang alagaan ang sarili po nila?" The nurse said.

("To be honest, I was really scared. There was fire! Anything could've happened. But if I was going to let my fear get the best of me, nothing will happen. Who will help the babies?")

"Kaya po I needed to overcome that fear," she said.

Fire struck a building of PGH around 1 a.m. on Sunday and was declared out nearly five hours later at 5:41 a.m. There were no reports of injuries or casualties.

As one of the country's only three COVID-19 referral hospitals, the PGH called for food and nonfood donations after the blaze damaged parts of the facility. — Margaret Claire Layug/LA, GMA News