Mumbai stampede toll rises to 23 after injured 35-year-old dies at KEM hospital

A 35-year-old man succumbed to injuries sustained in the Elphinstone-Parel bridge stampede on Saturday, taking the toll in the tragedy to 23.

Doctors at the KEM Hospital said Satyendra Kumar Kanojia was one of the two critical patients and died because of a heavy neurological damage.

“The patient (Kanojia), was on ventilator since the time he was rushed in the hospital. The diagnosis revealed an axonal injury, which ultimately caused the death after no signs of recovery,” said Dr Avinash Supe, dean, KEM Hospital.

The function of axon, which is a part of the neurological system of the body is to transmit information to neurons, muscles and glands. Damage to axon results due to a traumatic brain injury, which takes place because of excess external pressure on the head, followed by prolonged unconsciousness and had extremely poor survival rate.

Twenty-two people were killed and 39 others were injured after a stampede broke out on a crowded pedestrian bridge connecting two stations in Mumbai on Friday, one of the worst tragedies to hit the city’s teeming local train network.

It was unclear what caused the stampede, with official and witness accounts suggesting people may have panicked during the morning rush after believing there was a live wire or the bridge was about to fall.

“Some of the injured are in serious condition,” Deepak Sawant, the health minister of Maharashtra, had said at KEM hospital where the injured were taken.

The bridge, which connects Elphinstone and Parel stations, is usually crowded during rush hours, but it was more so on Friday morning after people huddled to take cover from a sudden downpour.