Yogesh Sadhwani, Virat Singh and Lata Mishra
A test-drive of stations across Western, Central, and Harbour lines carried out by this newspaper on Wednesday revealed that not one of them, with the exception of Dadar, is equipped to handle victims of serious accidents.
Monica, who fell off a crowded train in Ghatkopar last Saturday, lost her arms for two main reasons: one, there was an inordinate delay in taking her to KEM Hospital, where doctors tried unsuccessfully to reattach her arms; two, in absence of any emergency medical care, she was carried to the nearest hospital in an auto by two young men, who wrapped her severed arm in a piece cloth borrowed from a fellow commuter.
The scary reality is that Monica would have got the same care at any other station, small or big. Only Dadar has a trauma care centre and doctor on duty round-the-clock. But even Dadardoesnotstockonice,criticalintransporting severed limbs to a hospital.
The test-drive revealed that whatever emergency care facilities have been created at stations are not aimed at helping accident victims. They are aimed at complying with a 2004 Bombay High Court ruling, which put the onusofprovidingmedicalaidtoaperson injured in a train accident on the concerned station master. In Mumbaiya, it’s called ‘jugad’.
Other than first-aid kits with 66 items, many of them of no use in the sort of injuries that train accidents throw up, all stations across the city now have stretchers and wheelchairs. But the problemisthatnoneofthem have trained staff. Every time an accident is reported, the station master must beg, plead and bribe hamaals (casual labourers) to rush to the spot, pick up the victim.
The world over, extreme care is advised in handling accident victims as untrained hands can aggravate injuries. But on Mumbai’s stations, it’s the baggage handlers that are sent to take care of the injured.
And it doesn’t end here. Only six stations of the 108 have dedicated ambulances. All other stations must call for an ambulance. On Wednesday at Parel station, it took an ambulance half an hour to reach the spot after S K Patil, 50, a railway employee on his way home, fell off the train (see picture on page 1).
Thankfully, he had not suffered any serious injuries.
Not that the situation is any better at those handful of stations where there are ambulances. A railway officer, who did not wish to be identified, said while the ambulances are parked at the station, their drivers are never around. “It can take anything between 20 minutes to an hour to trace the driver and get him to the ambulance,” he said.
Theproblemisthatmostoftheseambulances are donations from social groups. Thus, their drivers are not accountable to the railways. “TheygettheirsalariesfromtheNGOsthatown the vehicles, they don’t need to report to us,” the railway officer said.
At Airoli, which caters to over 50,000 season ticket travellers and another 25,000 ticket buyers each day, every timethereisanaccident,the station master calls porters from Thane or Vashi to attend to the victim. That itself takes half an hour.
Doctors say that the first 45 minutes after an accident are critical in saving an accident victim’slife.“Theinjured must be attended to by paramedics and stabilized in the first45minutes,”saidaKEMdoctor.
But forget paramedics, the station masters are not given enough money to even pay the porters. Each station master has a budget of Rs 1150 to attend to an accident victim -- Rs 400 to pay porters to pick the injured, and rest for the ambulance.“Tryaskingfourporterstopickupa bleeding man off the track for around Rs 100 each. At many suburban stations there are no porters, so we end up asking drug addicts languishing around to help,” said another station master. For a rail network that earns Rs 1225 crore annually, it’s clearly the passengers that are important, not their lives.
SK Patil, 50, fell into the gap between the platform and the tracks at Parel on Wednesday. After commuters pulled him out, it took 30 minutes to take him to a hospital
THANE STATION Though almost all stations have stretchers, wheelchairs and first-aid kits with 66 items, they are of no use when it comes to major medical emergencies
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