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Anxiety, chaos prevail at SCB hospital, railway station

Photo: PTI

STOCK-TAKING: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the accident site, near Jajpur-Keonjhar Road Station in Jajpur district on Saturday. —

CUTTACK: Wailing in acute pain and saying his prayers in between on his hospital bed, 50-year-old Neelkantha is not forgetting to ask every doctor and nurse about his 80-year-old mother and teenaged son who were also travelling with him in the Coromandel Express which derailed on Friday evening.

A native of Chennai but working in Howrah, Neelkantha was going to his native place to attend his cousin’s marriage.

But undergoing treatment for broken leg and severe head injury at SCB hospital here, he is now more concerned for his old mother and son whom he has not met ever since the tragedy struck.

Like Neelkantha, many injured passengers undergoing treatment here are not only battling against their own injuries but are anxious about the condition of their relatives travelling in the ill-fated train.

But thanks to the activists of voluntary organisations, each one was trying to relocate the separated relatives from different wards and comforting each concerned injured by bringing ‘get well soon’ messages from other relatives.

However, DCP A.N. Sinha’s bid to rope in persons of different community to the hospital to help the injured passengers came in for lot of praise. “Since many of the injured were from outside the State we thought it would be easy to communicate with them in their own languages,” Mr Sinha said.

At least 46 injured passengers were shifted to the Cuttack hospital of which 31 are now undergoing treatment in different departments like surgery, orthopaedic and neuro-surgery.

The remaining passengers having minor injuries were discharged after treatment. Among the critically injured passengers, condition of three are stated to be serious and under observation.

The hospital staff on their part had done a commendable job to help the injured by converting the casualty ward to a temporary trauma care centre. At least 100 doctors, 300 paramedics, including junior doctors, house surgeons were put on duty to help the injured passengers.

Meanwhile, chaotic situation prevailed at Cuttack railway station where thousands of passengers were stranded due to either cancellation, diversion or delayed trains. As many as a dozen trains were cancelled and an equal number of them were diverted because the route between Cuttack and Jajpur Road station was not cleared.

Subrat, a native of Dhenkanal, was frantically trying to contact his bosses in Chandigarh as he was unable to report for his duties on Tuesday. Working in Air Force, Subrat had booked his ticket for New Delhi in Neelachal Express which has been cancelled.

Many passengers were also enquiring about any possible alternative to reach their destinations while several others are trying to reach Balasore by road to catch any possible north-bound train.

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