Andheri bridge collapse: Four stable, while one still battles for her life

Asmita and Ravindra Katkar

On Tuesday morning, Asmita Katkar, 35, was returning after dropping her son, when the ground beneath her feet literally collapsed on the Gokhale bridge, plunging her into a vegetative state. Her family is praying for a miracle, but doctors have said even if she survives, it would be with behavioural changes, as she is combating a severe brain injury.

While she recuperates in the Cooper hospital, her six-year-old son is waiting for her to return home. Her husband Ravindra said, "My wife would drop him to school and pick him up later. So on Tuesday, when she didn't bring him back home, I had to send a relative. Since then, our son has been asking for his mother and we don't have an answer for him, because he's just too young to understand. We have told him that she has gone to stay with her brother for few days and will return soon."

72 hours crucial
Asmita has suffered multiple brain contusions, which have put her in the vegetative state. She has been kept in a ventilator. Speaking to mid-day, Dr Jairam Jagiasi, HOD, orthopaedic department, Cooper hospital said Asmita she might lose function in her right hand, even though plastic surgeons have taken a skin graft from her legs and successfully cover her injury. "We can't say anything for the next 72 hours. Our main concern currently is her brain injury," he said.

Dr Shradha Maheshwar, the neurosurgeon who is treating Asmita, said that even though she has slipped into a vegetative state, she has shown signs of improvement. "She moved her leg a little bit today, [Wednesday] but we still can't be so certain about her health as she has suffered several contusions in the right part of her frontal lobe."

Others stable
However, other injured, namely Girdhari Singh, 40, Dwarka Prasad Sharma, 47, are stable. Meanwhile, another injured Haresh Koli, 40, who fell on the tracks, underwent a wound debridement operation at the Nanavati Hospital, where he has been admitted with another victim, Manoj Mehta, 45, who is undergoing treatment for a critical vertebral fracture in the ICU.

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