After spending over Rs 2 lakh for the surgery, 73-year-old Thrity Dalal was discharged from hospital on January 25 and is now undergoing physiotherapy
In yet another glaring example of how the city's local trains bring out the worst in their commuters at peak hours, a 73-year-old woman had to undergo a total hip replacement surgery after she was pushed out of a second class compartment at Andheri station, while she was trying to alight from a Borivli-bound train.
Mahim resident Thrity Dalal was on her way to a book launch in Bhavan's College, Andheri on the evening of January 16, when the unfortunate incident took place, after which she had to spend over a week in hospital and spend lakhs on surgery.
"I was caught in a crowd of 15-16 other women who were all jostling each other trying to get off at Andheri station. They flung me out of the train, which had halted at the station. I nearly blacked out from the intense pain I felt after landing on the platform," said Dalal.
"The pain shot up from my right hip. A few women who were alighting helped me get up on my feet again. There was no place to sit on the platform, so someone took me to a female government railway police official. I was given a chair and a bottle of water," she added, recalling her ordeal.
Dalal called a friend and informed him about the accident that had left her right thigh bone (femur) hanging from one side. "There was no stretcher or taxi for me. Only when my friend Fernando arrived did he help me walk out of the station, where we had to wait to find a taxi," said Dalal, a fashion designer. She was finally taken upto Bandra in an auto-rickshaw, from where her friend arranged for a car and took her to S L Raheja Fortis hospital in Mahim.
More bad news was in store at the hospital. X-ray scans revealed that the ball of her right femur bone had been damaged severely in the incident. The severe fracture on her right hip made it imperative for her to undergo a total hip replacement surgery on January 18. As Dalal lives alone in her Mahim flat, her daughter, who is based in Dubai, flew in the next day to take care of her mother.
After spending over Rs 2 lakh for the surgery, the 73-year-old was discharged from hospital on January 25 and is now undergoing physiotherapy. "I am appalled at how callous the women were. Though I was travelling during peak hours, there was no need to push me out of the compartment. And the worse part was, very few people came forward to help me though I was perspiring heavily after the fall," she said.
Dalal's husband passed away three years ago, and she now conducts regular classes for fashion designing students. Dr Vaibhav Kasodekar, orthopaedic surgeon at the Mahim hospital, said, "She sustained a severe fracture to her right hip as the ball of the femur bone not only got dislocated but also broke due to the impact.
As the bone could not be salvaged, we had to conduct a total hip replacement, following which she is now able to walk short distances. After her physiotherapy sessions, she will be able to resume her regular lifestyle in another month or so."