SoBo senior citizen slips into gutter grate, follows up with BMC for repairs

Dina Desai’s injured leg

A little over a month ago on December 4, 2024 Dina Desai stepped out of her car at Nana Chowk to buy medicines from a pharmacy. "My driver dropped me off outside the pharmacy, moving ahead to find parking space. I put my leg on what I took to be a grated gutter. To my horror, my left leg went all the way up to my thigh into the gutter grate as two spokes of this grate broke," said Desai from her Malabar Hill home.

Desai, 73, cried out for help as her bag, mobile phone scattered on the road. She said, "I started shouting: ‘help, help me' as I fell and was marooned in the gutter space. I could hardly comprehend what happened. I had nearly blacked out from the fear and panic." With her driver out of sight as he had moved ahead to find a parking space, passersby heard Desai's cries for help.

The space through which Dina Desai's leg passed

She said, "Fortunately, people at Nana Chowk rushed to aid me, two persons literally lifting me out from the space, extricating me from the gutter. My left leg was bruised, it had gone in till the thigh. The kind and responsive public helped me to my feet. At that time, I was not thinking properly due to the shock. I recovered my belongings, was handed my phone and actually went into the homeopathic pharmacy."

A shock

She said, "The pain was excruciating; I had some water after my fall and bought Arnica medicine to combat the pain." When the diminutive Desai got home there was substantial bruising and swelling on her leg and the pain seemed unbearable. She added, "I went to my family doctor and then did an x-ray at Breach Candy Hospital. Fortunately, it did not show a break. It was a large Haematoma." A Haematoma or blood suffusion is a localised bleeding outside of the blood vessels, due to either disease or trauma including injury or surgery. Some Haematomas can be seen as surface bruises. Desai said, "I have undergone a sonography, colour doppler and an MRI. The wound has also been aspirated."

Life disrupted

Desai whose life has been upended by the injury is still managing with the pain weeks after. "It will still be a few weeks until I am completely healed," said Desai. She has had to wear shorts since then, the bruising and swelling due to the injury is apparent, and though mobile, it is still challenging for her to move easily.

The repaired drain

She explained, "My work has also been affected. I am a restorer, restoring precious arts and crafts works like ceramics. This injury has disrupted that substantially," said Desai as she added, "As it has been quite debilitating and I find it difficult to concentrate. I also had some travel scheduled shortly; I do not even know if I will be able to undertake that trip. I am a regular swimmer and walker that has stopped for now, as I have been advised to do only upper body exercises."

The senior citizen surmised, "I am a petite person, weighing 53 kg and two spokes broke with my weight. What if a heavy person were to step on that gutter grate and all the spokes break completely? What if there was a small child who slipped through that gap created by the broken spokes? I want to warn the public that they should not step on these gutter grates, you simply never know if they are strong enough and can take your weight."

Follow through

What is extremely heartening is that even though injured, Desai decided to follow through. A few days after the injury she visited the BMC ‘D' ward office at Nana Chowk to register a complaint. She recalled, "Even though I am a senior citizen and was walking with difficulty, I was told to go to different departments to lodge a complaint. I wanted to ensure that there is some action taken and the gutter grate repaired."

The BMC personnel did repair the grate after that, claimed Desai, who added, "It is key that we follow up and complain. After the agonising time I have been through, my healing is still on though, I do not want anyone injuring themselves in a similar manner. It is also a pointer for authorities to look at the larger picture and repair and maintain our infrastructure with care, quality and consistency. We also need a redressal mechanism, where citizens are made aware that they can complain about dangerous or broken infrastructure," signed off the still shaken but feisty Desai.

BMC speaks

A BMC official said, "This was not a broken gutter. This is a double water entrance which has an approximately 40 mm gap between two spokes. If these ever break, we repair them immediately. Unfortunately, the lady's leg went into this gap. It is an extremely rare occurrence. We have welded an additional strip so as to prevent any future mishap."