Tragedy: Maharashtra Woman Dies in Ambulance Stuck in NH-48 Traffic for Hours
Tragedy: Maharashtra Woman Dies in Ambulance Stuck in NH-48 Traffic for Hours
Palghar resident’s death exposes poor health infrastructure and dangerous highway conditions
A 49-year-old woman from Palghar, Maharashtra, died in an ambulance after being trapped for hours in a massive traffic jam on National Highway 48 while being transferred to a Mumbai hospital for emergency treatment.
On July 31, Chhaya Purav sustained severe head, rib, and shoulder injuries when a tree branch fell on her near her home in Madhukar Nagar, Palghar. With no trauma centre in the district, she was referred from a local hospital to Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, a 100-kilometre journey that typically takes about two and a half hours.
She was administered anaesthesia for the transfer and left Saphale around 3 p.m., accompanied by her husband. However, NH-48’s pothole-ridden roads and chaotic traffic worsened by vehicles driving on the wrong side, brought the ambulance to a standstill. After three hours, the ambulance had only reached Virar, where Ms Purav regained consciousness and began crying out in pain.
By 7 p.m., four hours into the journey and still 30 kilometres short of their destination, her worsening condition forced the driver to divert to Orbit Hospital in Mira Road. Doctors there declared her dead on arrival, telling her husband she might have survived had they arrived just 30 minutes earlier.
Mr. Purav described the ordeal as “unbearable,” recalling that his wife “screamed in pain” for hours, trapped in the ambulance amid Palghar’s inadequate medical facilities and the nightmarish congestion on NH-48.
