MOST OF THE 60 INJURED SUFFERED FRACTURES

Dr Anchit Bhatnagar, 26, who lives next to Syedna’s bungalow, rushed to the aid of the injured after the stampede; He was the only medic among a crowd of thousands for 2 hrs.A young doctor, who lives next to Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin’s Malabar Hill bungalow, saved 24 lives early on Saturday after a stampede broke out among the late spiritual leader’s followers desperate to get a last glimpse of him.Dr Anchit Bhatnagar, 26, had just returned to his apartment in Hill Park at 1.30 am when the chaos erupted. Scores of mourners, including women and children, were being pushed and trampled near Saifee Mahal, where the Dawoodi Bohra leader’s body was kept for viewing, but there were no paramedics to treat the injured.Dr Bhatnagar, an MBBS with just 8 months of professional experience, then mounted a solo effort to provide emergency treatment to the victims, despite having no medical equipment or the time to get any. He isolated the injured from the crowd by taking them inside his building, and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on victims who had fainted because of the suffocating conditions.He even got water and glucose powder from his home for those who were suffering from dehydration. There was little else he could do as medical stores in the area were closed and it was impossible to get help from outside because the road leading to Saifee Mahal was packed with thousands of mourners.Dr Bhatnagar attended to the injured for nearly two hours before the first responders arrived at the scene. Seventeen people were killed and 60 were injured in the crush. The causalities could have been higher had it not been for the 26-year-old doctor. “People were running and screaming - there was chaos all around. Many people had fainted, but there was not a single paramedic to help them. I realised I had to do something,” said Dr Bhatnagar, who is attached to the surgery department of Jagjivan Ram Hospital, Mumbai Central.He praised the security guards in Hill Park and at the nearby MTNL complex for thinking on their feet and accommodating the injured inside the buildings’ compounds. “Many people had fallen down and were struggling to breathe, so the guards let them in,” he said.Syedna, who was due to celebrate his 103rd birthday, died of a heart attack on Friday. Tens of thousands of followers thronged to his residence, Saifee Mahal, late on Friday night to get a final glimpse of him. Alexander Graham Bell Road, a lane just before the chief minister’s official residence and which leads to Saifee Mahal, was completely blocked. Dr Bhatnagar’s mother had arrived from Delhi and was stuck in the crowd. He went out to get her home safely.“It was 1.30 am when I saw people pushing each other and falling down,” he said. “Some people had collapsed on the side of the road.”Guards at Hill Park Society and the MTNL complex quickly opened the gates so the injured could get away from the crowd. Bodies were also brought in, one by one. “I first attended to five people who had taken refuge in my society. They were all dehydrated,” Dr Bhatnagar said. “Some other victims had fainted so I performed amouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”Watchmen from the MTNL building, which is located opposite Saifee Mahal, informed him that more people had become unconscious there. They escorted him through the frenzied crowd to their building. “It took us half an hour to cover a small distance. By the time I reached there, some people had died either because of suffocation or a heart attack,” Dr Bhatnagar said.With paramedics or ambulance nowhere in sight, he continued to attend to the injured. “For nearly two hours after the stampede, no help arrived. Some people went out to get medicines, but were held up in the chaos,” he said.The first ambulances arrived shortly before 4 am. “By then, I had attended to 24 people,” he said. “I didn’t have manual resuscitators, which are crucial for handling suffocation cases.”Sambhaji Patil, a guard at MTNL building, was also among the unlikely heroes. After the stampede broke out, he provided temporary shelter to the injured in the MTNL compound. “People were being trampled, it was a disturbing sight. We immediately opened our gates, so such people could get away from the crowds,” he said.At least 60 people were injured in the stampede, with most of them sustaining fractures. Five of them have been admitted to Saifee Hospital. “A boy was kept in the ICU as he had breathing problems. The four others are being treated for fractures,” said Dr S J Bapai, assistant director, public relations and government administration, Saifee Hospital.Seven other people were brought to the hospital on Saturday evening after a minor stampede during the funeral procession in Bhendi Bazaar. “They have also been treated for fractures,” Bapai said.