18-year-old commuter loses eye as people hurl stones at train

Little did the 18-year-old Sadashiv Kadlag know that his daily commute from Thane to Kalyan would turn tragic on Thursday. Travelling in a jam packed second-class compartment of a local, Sadashiv was grievously injured when stones hurled at his fast moving local by unidentified people caught him in the right eye at Thakurli.

“Sadashiv, who works part-time as a sales boy with me, was on his way to a coaching class in Kalyan to collect an order of books,” said his employer Anil Nirvankar, adding that, “He was readying to alight at Kalyan and was standing near the door. This was when the person standing ahead of him, ducked on realising that a stone had been pelted. However, Sadashiv’s right eye was took the gruesome stone-hit.”

Sadashiv was rushed to KEM hospital in Parel, where doctors operating on him said the incident had resulted in vision loss. “At the time of being wheeled in for surgery, Sadashiv’s eyeball had been cut in half. Apart from retinal detachment, he had a corneo-scleral tear. During the three-hour-long surgery, we administered 25 stitches, panning from his eyeball right up to the back of the optic nerve, to hold the eye intact. Though we have managed to preserve his eyeball, he has lost his vision,” said Dr Arjun Ahuja, head of department (ophthalmology) at KEM.

“After passing his HSC with 68% despite our hand-to-mouth existence, Sadashiv had vowed to study hard and procure a decent job. While studying for college, he always worked part-time to support the family,” said Sadashiv’s teary-eyed father Vasant, who is an auto rickshaw driver in Virar.

“Loss of vision in one eye will break him morally and he will take months to pick up the pieces,” he rued.