Odisha three-train accident: Hospitals overwhelmed, blood donors line up – Times of India

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Hospitals near the rail accident site in Odisha’s Balasore district overflowed with injured passengers overnight, forcing makeshift arrangements even as doctors and other staff worked non-stop. Wailing in pain, many lay in hospital corridors with plasters around their limbs in Balasore, Soro, Gopalpur, Bhadrak and other places as beds ran out.
The trauma care ward as well as the male and female orthopaedic wards at the district headquarters hospital (DHH) in Balasore were filled with patients. Nurses and doctors were attending to patients without taking rest. The pathology facility in the hospital was working overtime.
Attendants of critical passengers frantically shifted them to SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack. Volunteers helped patients who were alone. Locals gave food to the injured, mostly from Bengal, and Balasore youths lined up to donate blood.
“I was in the general coach of the Coromandel Express, going to Chennai to work in a factory. The broken window glass pierced my head and I lost consciousness,” said Jaideep Goswami, a native of Harischandrapur in Bengal, at the Balasore hospital. Murshidabad’s Rajkumar Mandal lay in the corridor.
The Centre and Odisha government sent doctors to assist in relief. Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya directed AIIMS Bhubaneswar to send two teams to Balasore and Cuttack. “We are providing all assistance to savelives, said Mandaviya.
The Bengal government sent doctors, too. They knew scenes of devastation were waiting for them. But none had imagined the magnitude.
“The cries for help from the passengers trapped inside the mangled bogies and numerous bodies lying all around will haunt me forever,” Mustafizur Rahaman Mallick, medical officer at Midnapore Medical College, said. The young doctor was among the first from Bengal to reach Balasore, a little after midnight Friday along with 24 ambulances. Another 34 doctors went later.
“We helped in the rescue of around 15 passengers. A few of them were in a very critical condition. It was heart-wrenching to witness the scene,” said Mallick.
Some of the Bengal doctorslater went to the Balasore hospital, where the scenes were grimmer. Some had lost their limbs, some had sustained head injuries while the fortunate ones escaped with bruises. None had time to sleep as patients kept streaming in. “I have been in this profession for two decades and have tended to many accident victims. But I have never come across a tragedy of such magnitude. I am completely shaken,” said Indira Jana, a nurse.
While helping out at theBalasore hospital, the Bengal doctors arranged for many of the injured to be shifted to hospitals back home. By Saturday evening, more than 75 people had been brought back to Bengal in the ambulances sent by the state.





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