Sunil Birodkar's brothers visited Sion hospital but missed him as his name was not on the list and they were not allowed in the ICU.
MUMBAI: Sunil Ganpat Birodkar, 37, has joined the list of victims of Tuesday’s bomb blasts. But it took his family two agonising days to find out the bitter truth.
On Thursday morning, 36 hours after visiting all 19 hospitals where the blasts victims were admitted, police stations, and the BMC’s disaster control cell, the Birodkars learnt that Sunil died of a severe head wound at Sion hospital.
His wife and three brothers are distraught that Birodkar spent his last hours alone when they could have been by his side. “Things could have been different,” said younger brother Ashok. “We could have saved him. We could have shifted him to another hospital, or at least been there when he breathed his last.”
Sunil, an employee with a private firm, was on the 5:54pm Borivli Fast in which a bomb went off at Mahim junction. Elder brother Anil found his wallet at the Matunga police station late on Tuesday night. “We began looking for him right away,” he said. “We visited Sion hospital several times, but he wasn’t in the casualty ward. Neither was his name on the list.”
All this while, Sunil was battling for life in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU), where visitors are not allowed.
Now, the Birodkars are angry with the hospital authorities. “His name was not in any of the records,” said Anil. “Despite several requests, they didn’t allow us into the ICU.”
The hospital authorities were dealing with more than 45 casualties from the bomb blasts.
“We did the best we could,” said one official.
The Birodkars finally found Sunil on Thursday. “We went to the mortuary to check the bodies. Sunil was there,” Ashok said, breaking down. “His body was not mutilated. The wounds weren’t even visible. The injury was at the back of his head.”
On Thursday evening, when the brothers claimed the body, Sunil’s wife, Surekha, was called upon to sign the papers. That is when she found out that the blasts had claimed her husband.
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