24-year-old Sudanese student dies 6 days after falling off train at Mumbai’s Dadar station

Her family, unable to afford the expense of taking back her body to their hometown in south Sudan, has decided to cremate her in Mumbai.

After battling for life for six days, 24-year-old Jowahir Abdullah, a Sudanese student who fell off a train at Dadar and lost both her legs, died on Wednesday of multiple organ failure.

24-year-old Jowahir Abdullah.

Unable to afford the expense of taking back her body to their hometown in south Sudan, her family has decided to cremate her in Mumbai.

“After her death, her family enquired about the cost of taking her back to Sudan. When they realised that it would cost Rs2 lakh to Rs3 lakh, they decided to cremate her here itself,” said Sagar Patil, senior clerk, Rajaram Bapu Institute of Technology (RBIT), Sangli, from where Abdullah had completed her civil engineering course. “Amidst this, the Sudanese embassy stayed silent, it did not offer help.”

On July 12, Abdullah was alighting from the Koyna Express at Dadar station with six other students when she fell in the gap between the train and the platform. She held on to the rod and got dragged a few feet and lost both her legs. She was on her way back to Sudan when the accident took place.

Jowahir Abdullah had completed her civil engineering course from Rajaram Bapu Institute of Technology in Sangli.

“One of her legs was amputated above the knee and the other one slightly below. She also had a major bladder puncture. She was on ventilator and had undergone several surgeries for her multiple organ injuries,” said Dr Jayashree Mondkar, dean of Sion hospital, adding that she had been in a critical condition since Monday.

Union railway minister Piyush Goyal has asked Central Railway (CR) officials to look into the incident. “A four-member committee has been formed to inspect whether the gap between the platform and the train is too high at Dadar station. The report will be submitted to the railway board within a week,” said a senior CR official, who did not wish to be named.

Patil said the Sudanese embassy had become unresponsive about providing a caregiver or bearing her medical expenses. “She was our student and guest, so we had no issues attending to her medical needs, but the embassy did not even respond to our requests to help their own citizen,” said Patil.

Abdullah’s father, who had been unwell, is said to have passed away soon after her accident. Her sister, a doctor who rushed to Mumbai after the accident, is pregnant and struggled to find accommodation in the city.