Suyash waits for his mother with tears in his eyes

Satish Hole,Vaishali’s brother-in-law who stays in Pune,rushed to the hospital in the morning and waited at the morgue till 2 pm for the bodies. Suyash had to undergo a CT scan and while a doctor examined the child early morning,relatives claimed that no one attended the patients thereafter. “We want to shift him to a private hospital and are waiting for the doctors,” said Hole.

Seventeen medical officers from the public health department whose main duty was to handle casualty,blood banks and hospital administration were on mass casual leave to protest against the government’s proposed plan to transfer them to rural hospitals. But Dr Arun Jamkar,Dean of B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital,said the mass leave did not make a difference to the services at the hospital and the functioning was smooth.

It was an uphill task as the lecturers and doctors who were put in charge of the casualty refused to comment about the incident or provide details of the accident victims. When contacted Dr P S Pawar,medical superintendent of Sassoon General Hospital,said nine people were admitted to wards 2,4 and 8. He also said 17 medical officers had gone on a two-day casual leave but the situation was under control.

Neelam Kapse whose two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Sravani was injured in the accident was numb with shock and could barely talk to the relatives who had come from Satara. She too sat in ward number 2 waiting for medical attention after the initial rounds made by doctors.