Got no help for an hour: Jhelum Express derailment survivors
After being stuck inside a derailed bogie for more than an hour, they lived to tell the tale.
After being stuck inside a derailed bogie for more than an hour, they lived to tell the tale.
Arvind Yadav (26) and his friend, Sandeep Kumar (25), both from Jhansi, were returning from Jammu after offering prayers at the Vaishno Devi shrine when their S7 coach of the Jhelum Express train derailed near Phillaur around 3am on Tuesday . Yadav fractured in his left arm and received injuries to the face and head, too. He is at Ludhiana’s Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital.
“We got stuck between the berths. The rescue cops found me bleeding and in pain,” Yadav said. He is preparing to join police. MSc student Kumar broke his right leg. “We were asleep when we felt a jolt. The next thing we know is that we were stuck between seats,” he said. “We shouted for help but no one responded for a long time.”
Jai Prakash (46) of Delhi, who was with his daughter and a friend’s family in the S5 coach, fell off the berth. The group, too, had visited the cave shrine at Katra. “All the passengers were screaming and unaware what had happened,” Prakash’s daughter, Jyoti, said. “Even with an injured back, my father helped a child get out of the derailed bogie.”
Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital senior medical officer Dr Sukhjeevan Kakkar said the condition of all the injured passengers was stable. Yadav and Kumar were shifted to SPS Hospital.
FLAK FOR HOSPITAL, RLY COPS PRAISED
Dissatisfied with the treatment at Ludhiana’s Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital, injured Arvind Yadav asked to be moved to a better facility. “I felt pain when they stitched up my face with rough hands. They poked the intravenous-fluid needle into my arm 10 times before they could find the vein,” Yadav alleged. “No one came to replace the drip even after repeated calls.” Denying allegations, senior medical officer Dr Sukhjeevan Kakkar said patients had received the best of care. The care shown by Government Railway Police, however, overwhelmed the injured passengers. “The railway cops took care of us like their own family,” said Arvind Yadav. “They brought us food, water, and tea.”