Author: Anumeha Yadav
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 16, 2006
URL: http://cities.expressindia.com/archivefullstory.php?newsid=192974&creation_date=2006-07-16
Introduction: His head bleeding, woman rushed
husband to hospital; doctors saved another victim's arm after reconstruction
Almost every survivor of Tuesday's blasts
has countless, nameless, strangers to thank-those who rushed in from outside
the stations and helped the injured into taxis, tempos, policevans and ambulances,
even carrying them on their shoulders in some cases, those who tirelessly
worked at hospitals through the night only to slip into the shadows as dawn
broke. But only a handful got to identify if not express their gratitude to
those ''heroes'' who saved their lives.
Vijay Makwana, who works for a software firm,
has been fortunate enough to have had his ''saviour'' at his side throughout-his
wife Meena. ''If it had not been for her, I would not be alive today,'' he
says.
The couple had boarded the train at Dadar
to visit a temple in Borivali. A blast occurred two stations away at Mahim.
Meena who was a sitting in the ladies compartment jumped on the tracks and
rushed to look for Vijay.
''His head was bleeding profusely, there were
bodies all around. For a minute, I felt I would not be able to do anything,''
recalls the petite engineer. But she did. Tying her dupatta to his forehead,
she helped him walk to the road and rushed him to Sion Hospital in a taxi.
He was the second patient to be attended to.
Vinay Kumar Deshpande, an assistant engineer
in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, says he cannot thank the doctors
of Bandra's Asian Heart Institute (AHI) enough for performing a ''miracle''.
He almost lost his right hand as he lay bleeding
from a cut in the artery in his arm. From the blast site at Jogeshwari, he
was rushed to Cooper Hospital but his injury was so serious that the doctors
there knew they would not be able to treat him.
''My sister rushed me to this hospital. After
that, Dr D'Silva took over,'' recalls Deshpande. Dr Vijay D'Silva, a medical
director at AHI, led a team of four specialists to perform a rare arterial
and nerve reconstruction till 3 in the morning.
''We had to stop the bleeding, we had to save
his right arm. What would have been his life without his arm?''says D'Silva.
Deshpande says he has no idea how to repay
these doctors but the smile that spreads on the face of his dark, soft spoken
doctor as as he watches him slowly move his bandaged fingers seems to say,
there is no need at all.
