Lata Mishra and Aditya Anand @timesgroup.com
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Since there was no emergency medical care or ambulance available at the station, an unconscious Monica More, an SNDT student, was rushed to the Rajawadi Hospital in an auto by two brothers PAGE 6 who saw her fall from the adjoining platform. The brothers – Amjad and NaseemChawdhary–carriedthegirl’s left arm, that had come off entirely, wrapped in a cloth borrowed from a fellow commuter; while they tied her right arm, barely hanging from the elbow, with a handkerchief.
Since Rajawadi was not equipped to handle such a complicated case, Monica was taken to KEM Hospital where a team of doctors undertook a lengthy surgery, but failed to reattach the limbs, their job made difficult by the time lost in bringing the girl to their care.
Monicafelloffthecrowdedtrainat 1.50 pm and she was admitted to KEM at 4.30 pm. Had she been rushed from the station directly to KEM and the severedlimbwascarriedinanice-box,as it was eventually from Rajawadi Hospital, the chances of a successful re-attachment would have been higher, doctors said.
The doctors, however, were full of praise for Amjad and Naseem who rushedMonicatoRajawadi.“Itwasincredibly brave on their part.
Had the brothers not helped, the girl would have died of excessive bleeding. It’s regretful that there was no emergency medical help at the station to take the right decisions,” said a KEM doctor who did not wish to be identified.
Eyewitnesses said Monica and her friends were boarding the ladies compartment next to the motorman’s cabin of a CST-bound train when she fell off due to overcrowding. Since the train had begun moving and the gap between the train footboard and the platform was large, she slipped through onto the tracks. As commuters raised an alarm and someone pulled the chain, the train came to a halt in a few seconds.
Amjad, 22, and Naseem, 24, residents of Saki Naka, saw Monica falling from the adjacent platform and rushed to her help.
Amjad, a third-year BA student of Jhunjhunwala College, Ghatkopar, said when he pulled Monica out, she had passed out. “While her left arm was completely severed, the right was hanging just by the skin,” he said.
The brothers said though a crowd gathered around, nobody volunteered to help.
Amjad and Naseem waited for the train to leave the platform to collect the severed arm lying on the tracks. “Having heard severed limbs can be rejoined, we picked it up and wrapped it in a piece of cloth borrowed from a commuter,” Naseem said. They then picked up Monica, hailed an auto and took her to Rajawadi Hospital.
Rajawadi doctors cleaned up the wounds and stabilised Monica’s blood pressure which had plunged because of the bleeding, but decided to shifthertoKEMforthespecialisedsurgery.
Her friends by then had informed the family. Monica’s father Ashok More, who runs a transport business, said he did not have words to thank Amjad and Naseem. “Rajawadi doctors said that the two boys saved Monica’s life,” he said.
Government Railway Police officials said that they are investigating the matter and will speak to the victim once she recovers. A Central Railway spokesperson said that stretchers and attendants are available at the Ghatkopar station and are “made available as and when a message about a requirement reaches the station master.”
KEM Dean Dr Shubhangi Parkar saidthoughitisacomplexsurgery,the doctors tried their best. “When the patient was brought to the hospital, she had already lost a lot of blood. Our first priority was to save her life. We stabilised her and put her on life support. A team of plastic surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons was formed together to operate upon on her to reattach the severed arms. We took around two hours to stabilize her. That’s a lot of time lost for such a complex surgery.
Victim Monica More, 16, an SNDT student; her weeping mother
Brothers Amjad and Naseem Chawdhary, who saw Monica falling and rushed to help her
The brothers carriedher left arm, that had come off, wrapped in a cloth
