FREDA HOLLANDalmost died in 1954 when she braved smoke and flames to get 15 babies out of a blazing maternity home in Reading.She was left in a coma with serious burns - but made a full recovery. Sadly only two of the babies survived despite her herosim.She died on 16 November, 2009, at the age of 97.Her nephew told the Reading Evening Post that she rarely spoke in later life about the tragedy which hit the Dellwood Maternity Home in Reading, Berkshire, on Easter Sunday 1954.Miss Holland was a 41-year-old Sister at the maternity home at the time.The drama that unfolded was described by the US magazine Time. It described how Sister Holland opened the door of the nursery - which contained 15 babies none more than nine days old - to find the room filled with smoke; flames licking through the floor around the cribs, and one baby's bedding was already taking fire."Sister Holland screamed for help and rushed into the ward. Another nurse came to help, but they were both too late to save little Christopher Boulton, aged six hours. He died in Nurse Holland's arms as she carried him from the room." wrote the Time reporter.The article continued: "Trying to beat down the flames with her nurse's cap, Sister Holland went on to pluck the other babies from their cribs, one by one, and hand them to Sister Margaret Thomas at the door."When the last of the 14 was rescued, she collapsed. She was taken to Battle Hospital near by, where she lay in a coma while doctors did their best to graft new skin on her severely burned arms and face, and baskets of flowers from grateful parents were carried in."That night, in the same hospital, two of the rescued babies died from smoke poisoning. Two others died in Dellwood."Next day, despite desperate treatment with oxygen and penicillin, four more of the babies died."One by one, as the hours wore by and mothers prayed and doctors worked, the other victims of the smoke-filled night succumbed until only two were left."Miss Holland died in a care home in Basingstoke after being ill for some time.
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