Mumbai hospital fire: Doctors unsure if injured man will ever walk again

Eight people, including a two-month-old infant, were killed in a fire that broke out at the state-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital in Andheri on Monday.

Pramod Mourya (40) is lying in a paraplegic condition in Mumbai’s Cooper Hospital, where doctors are yet uncertain if he will ever be able to move his legs or stand. Mourya, a father of two daughters and a daily-wage labourer at Vasai, was accompanying his cousin, Rajesh, when the fire broke out at ESIC hospital.

Rajesh, who had undergone knee surgery on Monday, was barely able to move his right leg and was completely clueless about his chances of survival when the fire broke out.

“As soon as they realised there was a fire, Rajesh asked Pramod to escape without worrying about him. The duo somehow reached the window, broke the glass, and started their descent using makeshift ropes of bedsheets tied to each other,” said their relative, Rakesh Kumar Mourya.

While descending, one of the bedsheet knots opened and Pramod came crashing down. Rajesh, who managed the descent with just one effective leg, followed him. Doctors from Cooper Hospital said Pramod suffered a spinal injury and currently does not have any sensation below his waist. “He will have to undergo surgeries and we can only speak of his condition later,” said Dr Ganesh Shinde, Dean, Cooper Hospital.