Three of those injured in the Muzaffarpur-Yeswantpur Express train derailment were moved to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai because of their slightly serious condition. However, barely two hours later, doctors declared them out of danger and began tending to their injuries.
When 108 received a call requesting assistance after the derailment at 5.44 am, 14 ambulances from Tiruvallur and Vellore were dispatched. These men were brought to Chennai on referral from the Arakkonam GH.
The luckiest of the three, Krishna Kumar, a BJP veteran from Bihar, wanted to be discharged so that he could get on his way to Karnataka, where he was to campaign for the party and for an appointment with the Chief Minister, which he couldn’t afford to miss. Brought in with cuts to the head, chest, hands and a suspected spinal fracture, his scans were found to be clean. By late evening, hospital sources said they’d rather not take a risk and decided to keep him overnight, allowing senior BJP leaders to visit him in the ward.
The other two men, Swapnil (24) and Dileep (23), needed more medical attention though. The former had a cracked humerus and will need surgery in the next few days, while the latter has a spinal injury.