Doc recalls night of terror at Cama Hospital

Pune: "It was a day, rather evening, which has got inked on my mind for a lifetime. I had completed the discharge procedure of a patient and was about to leave the Gynecology Ward, when a relative of the patient who was just discharged came running, hinting at the chain of incidents that were in store,” said Dr Sonali Malagaonkar née Patil, who was a junior resident doctor at Cama Hospital when terrorist Ajmal Kasab and his aide struck at the hospital on November 26, 2008. 

Dr Sonali said, “When the terror strike took place, the staff and patients at Cama Hospital did not understand the gravity of the situation as we were busy in our daily routine. We had heard the sounds of guns firing, but dismissed them as fire crackers." 

"I was about to call it a day and was supposed to return to my hostel room on the hospital campus after taking the round in the ward with my senior Dr Vijay Korvi. We were the only two doctors present at the time," she said. 

"I got late while completing the procedure and Dr Korvi went ahead. But he got caught in the terror strike and had to spend the night on the sixth floor. Dr Korvi saw Kasab with the rifle, but as I said we were completely ignorant of the fact that it was a terror attack. We came to know about it only the next day," she said. 

"But sensing danger, with the help of patients' relatives and other staff (nurses, sisters, mamas) we closed the doors of all three wards. When I went to close the door of the casualty ward, I saw a guard lying outside in a pool of blood. I thought he must have got injured at CST as we had heard the firing shots but dismissed the sounds as crackers,” she said. 

"I was wondering how the staffers left him unattended and no one informed the doctors at the casualty ward. However, when I examined him, I found that he was dead. Just then, one of the mamas or male supporting staff came running and told me to run as fast as I could as the hospital was under attack. I ran and spent the entire night at the Infectious Diseases Ward. We were hungry and got to eat only the next day in the afternoon,” she said. 

"Earlier, I saw Kasab from behind and mistook him for a college student. Since I saw him from behind carrying a back-pack, I did not see the gun in his hand. Later, I came to know he was Kasab the terrorist. Luckily, no patient was injured in the entire mayhem,” she said. 

"Amidst all this chaos, we managed to shift a delivery patient to JJ Hospital, as we had to perform a C-section on the patient and the anesthetists could not reach the hospital,” she said. “For nearly a month after the attacks no one was ready to provide food items to the canteen as there were rumours about similar attacks going to take place every now and then," she added. 

"Back in Pune where my family lives, only my brother knew about it and was worried about my safety. My mother, who saw news of the attack at CST on television, thought that CST and Cama Hospital are far away from each other. The attack however, had another side to it. For the first time I got two days off to go and meet my family. Otherwise, junior doctors do not get any holidays during one year of internship in hospitals." 

On a lighter note, she said, “Now we get birthday wishes on this day as we survived the attack. I must say that people in Mumbai truly have a great spirit as Cama Hospital, which also has a Gynecology Cancer Ward, saw a number of patients coming for treatment the very next day."