12-year-old boy falls off train. Saved by Mumbai cop, but loses a leg

MUMBAI: A fall from a local train between Bandra and Mahim stations resulted in a 12-year-old boy eventually losing his leg knee down. His life was saved by an alert police constable who spotted him and rushed him to hospital. The boy, Farhan Ansari, is recuperating at Sion Hospital. His father is a dress designer and believes Farhan fell off the train while travelling with friends. He has not asked him what happened exactly as the boy is traumatised.
Farhan lives in Mahim with parents and three brothers. On January 6, he went to Bandra with friends to collect notebooks from a classmate. Around 12.20 pm, GRP constable Chetan Tatu was patrolling Bandra station when he noticed Farhan on tracks about 300 metres away. Tatu reached the spot and found the boy's left leg barely hanging from his thigh. Tatu scooped him up with the help of a bystander. "Mai bachunga kya, sir?" the boy asked Tatu. "I asked him his name. He said it and could speak no more," Tatu said.
He carried the boy to Bandra station and then in an ambulance took him to Bhabha Hospital. Farhan's friends informed his older brother, who dialled their father, Kamru. On spotting his father, Farhan said, "Papa mere ko bacha lo." "I wept the entire day. I couldn't bear to see him in pain," Kamru said. Farhan was later moved to Sion Hospital where his leg was amputated. "The patient did carry the distal limb but it was completely crushed and contaminated," said a hospital source.
Dr Arvind Goregaonkar, head of orthopedics at Sion Hospital, said the boy was brought in a serious condition with crushed tissues and bones. "We had to carry out a disarticulation of the knee (amputation from knee down) as there was no way to save it. There is no danger to his life anymore," he said.
Kamru said Farhan had missed lessons during the pandemic and wanted to borrow notes from a friend in Bandra to study at home. A dress designer, Kamru was at work when the incident occurred. He used to run a factory and would take his sons along to his workplace whenever their school was shut. But the factory closed during the pandemic. Kamru has requested the police to record Farhan's statement a few days later.
Doctors said the option of reattachment was lost due to time lapse. "It needs to be done within 3-4 hours and provided the blood vessels are not completely damaged," Dr Goregaonkar said. After he fully recovers, the boy can be fitted with prosthesis. However, since his growth will continue for some years, he will need a change of prostheses every one or two years. As his condition improves, he is likely to be shifted to ward in 2-3 days.