Man faints in stampede, wakes up in morgue

{image-naina devi_07082008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Mange Ram, 19, an Indian piligrim who was knocked down unconscious in the Naina Devi temple stampede in Himachal Pradesh found himself amidst dead bodies waiting to get a post mortem done. "My throat was parched and I asked for water. Towering over me the doctors and nursing staff at Anandpur Sahib Civil Hospital looked dazed. They must have been surprised to see a dead man come alive like that", said Mange Ram.

He lamented that people were dumped quite haphazardly into trucks without following any procedure or checking if they were alive. "The mela officers, those people in the administration given charge of overseeing pilgrimages, asked social workers running langars (free food stall) to identify the dead and dumped the unconscious and the dead in the same truck to the nearest hospital", he added.

Sat Pal Aggarwal, a doctor on the pilgrimage, said little was done to see if victims of the stampede were still alive.

OneIndia News