Social worker who lost cousin ferries patients in his ambulance

Sanju Tusamad, a social worker who owns an ambulance, was woken up by a frantic call from his cousin, Kiran

Sanju Tusamad, a social worker who owns an ambulance, was woken up by a frantic call from his cousin, Kiran. She asked him in panic to come soon to the building adjacent to hers in Goregaon where there was a fire, and she needed an ambulance.

Social worker who lost cousin ferries patients in his ambulance

Sanju along with his driver, Sunil Ramkumar Ridlan, rushed to the spot. “When I reached there from Malad, there was only one fire engine and one ambulance. Looking at the smoke I immediately understood that this was serious.”

“I heard from Kiran that our 12-year-old cousin Diya was still in the building. We finally found her lying on the second floor,” he said. Sanju took her to HBT Trauma Care Hospital in Jogeshwari where she was declared brought dead.

Considering the situation, he realised that his help would be needed here. Sanju and Ridlan got into work at 3am and transported 16-17 patients to Cooper hospital in Juhu and HBT Trauma Care Hospital.

“Fortunately, it was still dark so there was less traffic,” Ridlan said.

Sanju, 36, who is associated with Human Rights Foundation, later transported patients free of cost between the two hospitals for post-mortem and other procedures.

“I lost my young cousin today and we were waiting to collect her body, but the people from these building are poor. We will transport the bodies for post-morterm and then for final rites.” he said.