Medical aid arrives late, man dies of heart attack on train

A 50-plus man died of a heart attack in a standing train on Platform Two at the station watched by helpless commuters around 7 pm due to the non-availability of timely medical aid. Railway sources, however, dispute that claim.

The Bangarpet Passenger train, scheduled to leave the City station around 7.35 pm, arrived ten minutes late due to the delayed departure of the Mysore-Thanjavur Express from the platform.

It was around 7.50 pm that Ananda Padmanabhan, a native of Bangarpet, boarded the train. Within a few minutes, he complained of breathlessnesss and started sweating, said an eyewitness.

“A few minutes later, he slid onto the seat and became unconscious,” the eyewitness added. Passengers sprinkled water and tried to revive him but to no avail. A few of them alerted the RPF personnel at the platform who called up a doctor from the railway hospital nearby.

The horrendous wait continued for the unconsious man and the passengers inside the general compartment itself. “It took a good 30 minutes for the railway doctor to arrive. He examined the patient inside the compartment and declared him dead,” the witness said.

Had there been some medical assistance around and immediate steps taken to resuscitate Padmanabhan, he could have been saved, he lamented.

Meanwhile, a top railway source refused to accept that the doctor’s arrival was delayed. There is an ambulance (108) which has been recently provided to the station and it runs only between the station and hospital. “As soon as the doctor got the information, the ambulance at the railway hospital brought him here. He arrived within 20 minutes,” he claimed.

He also added unwittingly that in many cases the doctors have actually landed up much later and it was quite an early arrival this time.

Platform two is quite lengthy and it takes five minutes just to reach from one corner to the other, he added. However, he had no answer as to why some kind ofmedical facility was not available within the station premises on any of the platforms.

Contents in Padmanabhan’s pocket revealed that he was a resident of Amaravathi Layout in Bangarpet, had separated from his wife and was staying with his brothers.
Meanwhile, the train left the station by 8.30 pm after a delay of 45 minutes.