Mumbai: Elderly Man On Way To Hospital Dies After Ambulance Gets Stuck In Traffic At Andheri's Marol

Mumbai: In a tragic incident that has come to light from Mumbai, an elderly man identified as Krishna Shetty lost his life inside an ambulance as he couldn't reach the hospital on time owing to heavy traffic jam on Friday, July 12. Shetty was a resident of Andheri Hill View Society in Mumbai's Bhavani Nagar in Marol area of Andheri East. The residents of the society pointed out that bad roads leading to traffic jam delayed the process of admitting Shetty to the hospital, due to which the doctor declared him brought dead.

Andheri Hill View society is located 850 metres from one of the biggest hospitals of Mumbai- Seven Hills Hospital. Residents of the society cited that from the time Shetty started complaining of breathlessness, they informed the hospital and requested for a cardiac care ambulance. Since the ambulance took time to reach, they decided to go ahead in a car. However, seeing the ambulance arriving in the meantime, they decided to shift him in the ambulance assuming that it was a cardiac care ambulance.

Residents' statements

One of the office bearers of the society’s managing committee who was one of the persons who accompanied the patient and executed further hospital formalities said, "As soon as we sat in the ambulance, we realised that it was not a cardiac care ambulance. After questioning the ambulance attendant, he said that cardiac care ambulances attached to the hospital were all on duty and hence they had arranged a contract based ambulance. Since we were running out of time, we just proceeded."

Another resident who accompanied through the process, Martin Chettiyar said, "The ambulance couldn't exit the lane connecting to Marol Maroshi road where the hospital was located due to traffic  jam caused by bad roads and we took nearly 40 minutes to cover a distance of 5 minutes."

Traffic woes

Cross road connecting Marol Maroshi Road, Bhavani Nagar and MIDC Andheri has been in a bad state for over 30 years. Residents highlight that they have been approaching  the authorities repeatedly for having a traffic cop to manage the cross roads and get the roads repaired. However, no permanent solution has been implemented in the area so far, complain the residents.

Amrut Abhyankar, a resident of the same society and a close acquaintance of Krishna Shetty said, "We have been staying here for the last 40 years. Till today road conditions continue to be very bad, traffic has increased multifold including BEST routes, there is hardly any footpath left for pedestrians to find a way to walk in clogged traffic on both sides."

Amrut Abhyankar further said, "The development work like ducting of MTNL cables, cable laying of new entrant power supply company like TATA Power, concretization, diversions due to underground Metro work, still add to the misery of people staying in this locality."

Martin Chettiyar said, "Unauthorised parking by swiggy, Zomato vendor vehicles block the Bhavani Nagar lane which is a private road that connects Marol Maroshi main road. In emergency situations, timely help becomes extremely difficult. Besides Bhavani nagar lane is home to a High school which makes it more chaotic with the lane completely blocked by unresponsible parking."