They took his body, forgot his arm

Rescue workers leave dead motorman R Ramchandran's severed hand behind, delaying post-mortem and traumatising mourners

Rescue workers leave dead motorman R Ramchandran's severed hand behind, delaying post-mortem and traumatising mourners

There was no dignity in death for motorman R Ramchandran (42), one of the two who lost his life in the train disaster yesterday.

Crushed: It took about three hours to rescue the motorman from this wreckage. Pic/Sameer Markande

Ramchandran was trapped in the motorman's cabin for nearly three hours all through which he remained alive to think and relive the horror of the accident. When the rescue workers finally got him out at around 1.45 pm, he had succumbed to his injuries.

The tragedy, however, didn't end there. They took his body to Thane Civil Hospital only to realise that the autopsy couldn't be done, as one of his forearms was missing.

S M Tompe, a civil surgeon of the hospital, explained that a post-mortem couldn't be done without a panchnama in case of accidents and the police couldn't do a panchnama without all the body parts (see Autopsy rules). "Unless the missing hand of the deceased is found we won't be able to do the postmortem," said Tompe at around 2.30 pm, when the rescue workers were sent back for the severed hand.

Furious kith and kin
This, however, was the proverbial last straw for Ramchand- ran's relatives and friends. The already agitated crowd at the hospital started getting more furious by the minute.
They blamed railway officials for the death, saying had rescue been speedy, Ramchan-dran would have been saved.

His colleagues were amazed at the goof up over his missing hand. "First our friend is not rescued on time. Then it takes four hours more to perform the postmortem. When the railways treat their own men in such a manner what can we expect from others," said a colleague. The angry colleagues kept trying to call in their contacts to ensure that the arm would be brought in without further delay.

Ramchandran's relatives were too depressed to talk, but their anguish poured out when they met B Modgil, GM, Central Railway. Said his brother-in-law, "Please tell me why Ramchandran was not rescued in time. Who will take care of his family now?"

He is survived by his wife and a three-year-old girl.

The autopsy finally began at around 4.30 pm. It was completed by 6 pm. Ramchandran will be cremated today.
"Death was caused by shock and haemorrhage due to polytrauma and traumatic amputation of lower part of the left arm," said PI RN Kale from Thane GRP.

Autopsy rules
The law says doctors can't do a post-mortem without a panchnama, but a panchnama can be done if a body part is missing.
"Usually if there is a mass casualty or unnatural calamity like a bomb blast the police and magistrate have the power to certify deaths and hand over the body. However, in this case since an accident led to the death an autopsy was required. But I am surprised that the police delayed the panchnama for the missing hand. They could have and should have conducted the panchnama without it and speeded up proceedings," said a senior forensic doctor attached to JJ group of hospitals and Grant Medical College.
A Thane GRP officer, on condition of anonymity, said, "It wasn't necessary to wait for the hand, but as we knew it was on its way, we waited. We prefer to make one panchnama instead of making supplementary ones."
However, PI RN Kale from Thane GRP, who was at the hospital, said, "Our panchnama was on, but we finished it only after the arm arrived. We finished the panchnama at 4.05 pm."

Motorman Ramchandran a hero
Ramchandran"s colleagues and friends said he saved the lives of thousands of passengers by applying the emergency breaks. A colleague, who is also a motorman, claimed that when the bridge collapsed, he immediately applied the breaks. Had he not done that, the pipeline have fallen on one of the compartments behind, which had many passengers.
Ramchandran, a resident of Milan Palace, Dombivli (E), had joined the railways in February 1988 as an assistant driver and was promoted to motorman in 2002. He was deployed at the Kalyan depot.