BENGALURU: Their plan was to usher in Valentine’s Day in God’s own country Kerala. But it all crashed just a day before February 14.
For Kamil and Alexandra Ryzczak (Ola), the month-long vacation to India took a traumatic turn when the ill-fated Intercity Express they were travelling on derailed near Anekal, early Friday morning.
“We reached India on February 2 with our first stop at Mumbai. Then we proceeded to Kathmandu, Jaipur, Lucknow and then we reached Bangalore on Thursday,” said Kamil.
The 33-year-old is injured in his left leg. “We spent a day in Bengaluru and on Friday morning boarded a train to Cochin,” he said.
Kamil, though injured, was restless and kept asking the doctors and railway authorities about his girlfriend Ola. “They took her to a different hospital. I don’t know how she is. Please bring her here,” he pleaded.
Ask him what he remembers from the accident and he says, “At first the train was swaying like in a video game. Then in a second, I felt like a wall was entering the train and I tried looking for Ola who was in the next seat. Then it was all a blur.”
Kamil says when he regained consciousness, he found himself trapped behind a huge metal door like object. “That separated me and Ola and I saw people cutting through it to rescue us,”he says.
After requests to Railway authorities, Ola was brought to Sparsh Hospital in the Narayana Health City and the smile was back on Kamil’s face.
But this too was short-lived as the doctors informed him that Ola’s injuries were grievous in nature.
“There was a lot of delay in bringing her to a specialist care. She has had a nerve rupture in her right leg and might have to get her leg amputated,” said a hospital staff.
A distraught Kamil was limping across to various doctors trying to understand the situation while Ola’s cries could be heard across the ward. “We were to leave on February 25. I don’t what I will do now,” he said.
While Ola and Kamil were thankful for escaping with injuries, in the hospital’s corridors a woman’s loud wails could be heard. She was the grandmother of Aman, the nine-year-old who died in the accident.
The youngest to die, Aman was a class III student at M S Convent in Bengaluru. They were on the way to Kochi for getting traditional treatment for Aman’s mother Sharmila, who had been diagnosed with jaundice.
While Sharmila sustained serious injuries, Aman died on the spot.
“We haven’t told Sharmila that Aman is no more. Her condition is very critical and we don’t know what to do,” the relative said.