It were KEM doctors' shouts for blood and the Mumbai Police's tweet, appealing the same to the public at large, that stopped the day from becoming worse for those grievously injured in the stampede at Elphinstone Road station
It were KEM doctors' shouts for blood and the Mumbai Police's tweet, appealing the same to the public at large, that stopped the day from becoming worse for those grievously injured in the stampede at Elphinstone Road station.
The injured pour in at KEM Hospital on Friday afternoon. Pic/Suresh Karkera
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While railway employees were busy taking the injured to the hospital, doctors had alerted authorities about the acute shortage of blood at the blood bank, particularly in the light critically injured people pouring in. The city cops took it from there, tweeting: "A -ve, B -ve and AB -ve blood is required in KEM hospital for those injured in #Elphinstone stampede. Please contact the blood bank at KEM." And citizens responded wholeheartedly - 220 donated till 4.30 pm with another 150 callers dialing the helpline number offering help.
Not a red-letter day
The hospital received 39 people with severe injuries by 12.30 pm. Many of them had sustained brutal head injuries and lost a huge amount of blood. They were admitted in the emergency ward. But with the blood bank short on the negative blood groups, doctors were seen shouting for help in the casualty ward.
Mumbai Police's appeal and 'thank you' tweets
"We need donors... we don't have blood in our bank for the injured coming in. Hence, we are requesting people to come forward and donate," said Rajesh Shinde, an employee at the blood bank. Along with people, several resident doctors and relatives of the injured also rushed to the blood bank to donate.
"We heard about the announcement made by the hospital about the need of blood, so we came to donate. Usually, such kind of a shortage is not seen, but as the number of injured was high, it led to increased demand," said Dr S Singh, a second-year resident doctor.
Thank you, all
The police department, later, expressed its gratitude to Mumbaikars by tweeting: "ThankU Mumbai for the response to request for blood. KEM hospital has rcvd enough to treat the injured. Grateful for responding to the call."
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sudhir Naik said, "Initially, there was some shortage of blood, but after it was brought to our notice we created adequate stock with the help of our other major hospitals. From the injured, five are in a critical condition. There was proper co-ordination between the BMC and railway during the relief work."
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