Mumbai – The death of Chhaya Purav (49) from Palghar district has drawn sharp attention to the twin crises of inadequate local healthcare and crippling traffic on National Highway 48, the lifeline connecting Palghar to Mumbai.
On July 31, Ms Purav was critically injured after a tree branch fell on her in Madhukar Nagar, causing severe head, rib, and shoulder injuries. With no trauma centre in Palghar, she was referred to Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai. The 100-km trip, usually 2.5 hours, began around 3 pm after she was administered anaesthesia.
However, the ambulance was caught in a massive traffic jam on NH-48. By 6 pm, three hours in, only half the distance was covered. The anaesthesia wore off, and Ms Purav’s pain intensified. With her condition worsening, the ambulance diverted to Orbit Hospital, Mira Road—still 30 km from the intended destination—arriving around 7 pm.
Doctors pronounced her dead on arrival. Her husband, Kaushik Purav, was told she might have survived had they reached just 30 minutes earlier.
Mr Purav described the harrowing journey, saying pothole-ridden roads worsened her agony and wrong-side driving deepened the traffic chaos. “She was in unbearable pain for hours, begging to reach a hospital. But we were trapped,” he said.
The tragedy has reignited calls for urgent upgrades to Palghar’s medical facilities and stricter traffic management on NH-48.