Working long shifts to cut short trauma of kin

For the past three days,Constables N Dinesh and Ravinath have been seated at a desk outside the Wenlock Hospital mortuary for 17-hour stretches...

For the past three days,Constables N Dinesh and Ravinath have been seated at a desk outside the Wenlock Hospital mortuary for 17-hour stretches,patiently doing the paper work that would let the hundreds of people thronging there to take back the bodies of their relatives who died in the air crash.

Inside the mortuary,doctors deputed from the Kasturba Medical College,Dr Jagadish,Dr Ritesh and Dr Suresh Shetty,worked similar schedules to furnish post-mortem reports that would allow the relatives of the victims to close their paper work with the police outside.

These policemen and doctors,along with numerous anonymous villagers and fire personnel who plunged voluntarily into the rescue operations soon after the crash, top the list of hundreds of unseen hands that made sure that the air crash did not turn into further despair for the hundreds of families struck by the tragedy.

Our difficulties were nothing compared to what the families were going through, said Dinesh,who finally got to return home at 10 pm on Monday.

Despite the district Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police being out of the country on learning assignments,the administration in Mangalore have,through quick,efficient and dedicated functioning,managed to make sure no further grief was caused to the victims of the tragedy.

As early as 6:30 am on Saturday when we realised the extent of the damage from the crash,we began mobilising the entire district into action. Every hospital was alerted,the entire police force pressed into action, stock was taken of all the things that would be needed gloves,water,food,ambulances,personnel, says Inspector General of Police (Western Region) Gopal Hosur.

According to witnesses,people plunged into rescue work as if their own were in the crash. As the fire from the crash settled,many just whipped on gloves,rolled up their trousers and rushed to bring victims to the ambulances and vehicles that were arriving. It has something to do with the nature of people here, said Mohammed K,a Panambur sub-division Constable on duty at the crash site.

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While a traffic snarl did hamper efforts to get victims to hospitals along the narrow roads,locals and policemen ensured that only designated ambulances and official vehicles reached the crash site.

With Mangalore not having a shortage of hospitals on account of being a key medical education destination in the country,medical care was amply available. But with most passengers being brought dead,it was the mortuaries at the seven hospitals that were taking in the crash victims.

Community leaders were present at the mortuaries to intercede on behalf of families if tempers flared.

On the first day,an emotionally charged resident of Kasargode,who had run into a dispute over the claim for a body,asked the Deputy Commissioner in-charge,What should I go home and tell my family if I dont have a body to take with me? Several leaders from his community soothed him by explaining to him that a DNA process would enable him identify the body.

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Deputy Commissioner in-charge Prabhakar Sharma,Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh,nodal officer Yogendra Tripathy were seen cooling frayed tempers outside the Wenlock mortuary.