‘Ground beneath us crashed, there was no time to run back’

Rescue work under way at the bridge collapse site in Mumbai on Tuesday. Santosh Parab

Caught between cables, iron slabs and bricks, Asmita Katkar, 35, remained buried in debris and was the last to be rescued after a road overbridge attached to the G K Gokhale bridge collapsed on Tuesday morning. The mishap injured five people, two of them critically, even as local residents claim it was a miracle no deaths occurred on the bridge that witnesses a heavy footfall in morning rush hours.

Katkar, a domestic help, remains in critical condition at Dr R N Cooper hospital with a brain haemorrhage, multiple trauma wounds and injury on her hand that may require an amputation, doctors said. She underwent multiple surgeries on Tuesday under a team of plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopaedics, and general surgery department.

On Tuesday, Katkar was walking home to Juhu after dropping her son Siddhesh, aged eight, at Andheri East located BMC-run Paranjape school. Like every day, she had left home at 7 am with Siddhesh, whose school starts at 7.30 am. She had started walking from eastern end of the road overbridge when the bridge collapsed, burying her under debris. “My brother saw the news on TV that the Andheri bridge had collapsed,” said husband Luv Katkar.

“She had no phone with her. My husband went to school and picked up her son, he then rushed to the site to look for her. We initially thought she was stuck somewhere due to rains,” said her sister-in-law Anuradha Katkar. The family suspected she was unable to cross the bridge due to collapse and was stranded towards Andheri East. Katkar remained unidentified for three hours until Ankush Katkar, her brother-in-law, reached Cooper hospital in search of her. “Doctors told us if we don’t sever her hand, the infection will spread to her brain,” Anuradha said.

Katkar, who washes utensils to earn a living, first underwent a tracheostomy on Tuesday to create an airway to breath. Another surgery was conducted on her face by a plastic surgeon and one by a neurosurgeon. “Her condition is critical. We did multiple surgeries upon her for at least five hours,” a treating doctor said. Katkar remains in vegetative condition. She was wheeled in unconscious. “We have only been told that her condition is serious. I ran to get more blood units for her,” husband Luv said.

Another injured Manoj Mehta, 52, was rushed to Dr R N Cooper hospital by 9.27 am. According to a doctor at the hospital, he suffered chest trauma and pneumothorax. “We stabilised him and his family took him to Nanavati hospital,” the doctor said. Those at rescue site said Mehta, who was walking over the bridge, was also trapped and was hurt on the back when the bridge collapsed. Mehta left Cooper hospital in the morning and got admitted to Nanavati hospital for spinal surgery. “ The D2 and L1 level in the spine had injury,” a treating doctor said. Doctor at Nanavati hospital said he is under observation.

Security guards Dwarkaprasad Sharma (47) and Girdhari Singh (40) were both walking together from Juhu Galli towards Western Express Highway, where they work, when the bridge collapsed. The Rajasthan natives suffered multiple fractures and poly trauma injuries. “I was conscious the whole time. The ground beneath us just crashed, and there was no time to run back,” Sharma said.
He has been working as security guard in Viraj Towers in Andheri East, for seven years, and Singh for six months.

The two take that route every day as they walk for over 40 minutes to reach office. “There was heavy rain and no one came until 15-20 minutes after the collapse. A policeman was the first to reach us,” Sharma said. Singh was buried from chest below in debris on the railway tracks. “I kept shouting, “Mujhe koi bachao (someone save me)”,” he said. Sharma suffered leg injury, while Singh suffered multiple lacerations in the liver, and injury to the chest and abdomen.

Singh, from Jhunjhunu district, shifted to Mumbai six months ago in search of work. “I don’t remember much, I am in so much pain,” he said as he asked doctors and nurses for his mobile phone to contact his family. His family lives in Rajasthan. The road overbridge collapse halted all trains that were north and south-bound. As morning crowd of office-goers increased on Andheri station, a few sustained minor injuries in the commotion that followed. Madh Island resident Harish Kohli, 41, was standing on platform number 1, travelling to Santacruz where his office is, when the crowd on the platform swelled at around 8.30 am fueling fears of a stampede. “I was pushed by the crowd onto the tracks,” he said, nursing his fractured left hand.

His wife Reshma Kohli said she was informed around 10 am that Kohli had been injured. Kohli’s condition is stable, treating doctors said.