Anxiety levels immediately escalated. But the station is still a few streets away. Says one of the young nurses (the nurses do not wish to be be named): "Then one of the patient's relatives came running from VT (CST). He said there had been firing over there. Our hospital watchman also came up and said there had been shots."
Barely 15 to 20 minutes later, patients and staff froze in heart-stopping fright when they heard the sharp crack of firing right inside the hospital's perimeter. When the staff at different floors of the newer ANC/PNC (ante and post-natal care) wing of the hospital looked out the window they saw that dark figures -- later identified as Ajmal Amir Kasab and Abu Ismail -- had scaled over the back gate of the hospital (which is located on a tiny lane that runs between the CST and Mahapalika Marg) and were right inside the hospital's compound. "They then shot at our window," says a second nurse.
The doctors, nurses and other staff then heroically sprung into action, taking a sequence of life-saving decisions in just a matter of minutes. Crucial and courageous decisions that saved the lives of every one of the Cama hospital's 180-odd patients that horrible night, their relatives and a few others who had sought refuge at the hospital.
Image: A wreath marks the spot where one of the hospital's watchman, Baban Ugre, was shot dead
Also see: 'I didn't want to run away, so I fought back'
Advertisement
Anxiety levels immediately escalated. But the station is still a few streets away. Says one of the young nurses (the nurses do not wish to be be named): "Then one of the patient's relatives came running from VT (CST). He said there had been firing over there. Our hospital watchman also came up and said there had been shots."