Mumbai: Like any other day, 35-year-old Asmita Katkar went to drop her child to school walking on Gokhale Bridge. But she would never have thought that the ground beneath her feet would give way on Tuesday and put her at death’s door. Katkar is in the ICU at Cooper Hospital with severe brain injuries. She underwent a surgery for her eye which was badly injured in the incident.
Every day, Asmita and her eight-year-old child take the dilapidated pedestrian bridge to school, as it is the easiest and quickest way. But when Asmita did not return home at her usual time and her phone was unreachable, the family knew something was wrong. When they saw the news of the bridge collapse, they rushed to the civic-run hospital, only to find her in a pool of blood, with head and eye injuries.
Talking to The Free Press Journal, Reshma Choukekar, a family member said, “She walks on the same bridge every day, but never did we think that one day, she would be reeling in pain on a hospital bed because of this routine. She was trapped under the debris for half-an-hour until the fire brigade rescued her.”
Even though the family is still in a state of shock, they are also grateful that the eight-year-old child is safe. “I am so thankful to God the child wasn’t get injured. My heart flutters when I think what would have happened had the collapse happened while Asmita was taking the child to school,” Choukekar added.
Dr Ganesh Shinde, Dean of civic-run Cooper hospital, said, “So far, five people are injured and are admitted to Cooper and Nanavati hospital. Of the five, two passengers – a man and a woman, are said to be critical and are shifted to the ICU. Rest have suffered minor fractures and head injuries and are out of danger.” A senior doctor from Nanavati Hospital said Manoj Mehta (52) who is also critically injured in the Andheri Bridge Collapse has sustain a multiple injuries due to which he has been undergoing treatment.