Times Of India Kolkata: For more than 35 hours, she lay on a narrow pavement of the Chetla bridge, her festering wounds hidden under two thin sheets of cloth. None of the speeding cars or pedestrians, though, bothered to come to her aid, even as she groaned in pain. All the while, 65-year-old Sandhya Mandal — who had 40% burns on her lower back and legs — kept bleeding from her infected wounds.
Her ordeal ended when a few local residents noticed her lying almost still early on Wednesday morning, the sheets of cloth having come off, exposing her wounds. The thin saree wrapped around her had come off. Led by a local shop-owner, they informed the Tollygunge police station and an NGO. Members of the NGO rushed to the spot and moved her to the Chittaranjan National Medical College Hospital, where her condition is stated to be serious.
“She was extremely weak and was barely being able to speak. She could only mumble a few words, from which we could gather that she had been left at the bridge by her neighbours at Taldi in South 24-Parganas. Last month, she suffered burns while lighting a lamp at her home. But the woman was not treated. On Monday night, she was brought to Kolkata in a car and left on the bridge that remains almost deserted at night,” said Nitai Mukherjee of the NGO.
Police suspect that Sandhya is mentally challenged and doesn’t have a family. She might have been left on the road in the hope that she would be rescued and taken to hospital.
For a day and a half, Sandhya went without food and water. A tube of an anti-burn cream and some medicines were found lying beside her. “There’s no shop or settlement in the immediate vicinity, so few noticed her. Also, she was wrapped from head to toe with hardly any part of her body visible. Last night, she might have tried to move, which displaced the sheets and exposed her wounds. It is clear that she has not received any treatment,” said Babu Saha, a local shopowner.
It was he who informed others in the area and sought help from a local police outpost.
Initially, Sandhya was taken to M R Bangur Hospital, where she received primary treatment. But she couldn’t be admitted there, since the burns ward had no bed available.
“We then took her to CNMCH, where a bed was fortunately vacant. But doctors are not very optimistic about her chances of survival. Her wounds have got infected without treatment. Her exposure to the dirt and dust of the pavement has made things even worse. She is also suffering from acute dehydration. We are keeping our fingers crossed,” said Mukherjee.
Police said a neighbour had brought Sandhya to Kolkata for treatment. But he dumped her on the pavement and fled. “We came to know about it from an NGO and helped them move her to hospital,” said an official of the Tollygunge police station. Sandhya is probably a widow and might have been deserted by her family in Taldi, said police.
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