She does not know son is dead

Earning Rs 500 as daily wages for the construction work,the husband and wife had hoped to save enough before Diwali to buy new clothes for the family. As relatives and friends gathered around Lalita’s bed,she wailed,“What did we do to deserve this fate?”

Lalita,who has worked at several construction sites in the city with her husband and stays at Ambegaon Pathar in Haveli tahsil is reeling under the shock of the crash. “My eldest son who is three-and-a-half was sent earlier to Hyderabad to stay with my in-laws and start his schooling. I still have not met my husband and younger son after the crash,” she cried.

Chandu,admitted to the male surgical ward late at 10 pm,after he was rescued from under a slab where he had been trapped for more than seven hours,suffered chest and pelvic compression. The roof of his nose is damaged.

Of the children injured in the collapse is five-year-old Boddhu Shahu suspected to have suffered intra-abdominal injury but has bleeding in his muscles. “We are keeping him under observation in the ICU,” said paediatric intensivist Dr Shweta Naik.

Boddhu’s mother Pratibha Shahu fractured her right leg and has not met her son who is in ICU.

According to Dr Sanjay Lalwani,medical director of Bharati Hospital,all nine patients injured were recovering and most of them are likely to be discharged over the weekend.

“This is for the first time that we were able to activate our disaster management cell and respond to the emergency within 10 minutes of the incident,” said Lalwani. Patients were brought to Bharati Hospital,an 865-bed hospital where medical investigations like CT Scan,sonography,X ray and others were done.

Dr S T Pardeshi,acting chief medical officer of PMC said the civic body will bear cost of treatment of the injured.