Bhandup man, shot at by robbers, reunites with family

The new year has brought good news to the Rane household after a depressing end to 2013.
Umesh Rane, 42, who was shot at by robbers in Bhandup on the morning of Christmas, returned home on Thursday. Doctors call it a miraculous recovery, because the bullet had not just resulted in injuries to Rane’s chest but also to his vital organs — liver, stomach and intestine.

Rane, who works with Reliance Fresh in Kurla (West), was shot at by four robbers when he tried to stop them from snatching his belongings near the unused railway tracks close to Bhandup station on December 25. However, the robbers managed to flee with two of his gold chains.

The incident took place around 7am. A resident of Usha Nagar complex near Bhandup station (West), Rane was on his way to the station via the tracks.

Despite sustaining a serious injury in the abdomen, Rane had managed to reach home and inform his wife and neighbours. His neighbours had then taken him to hospital.

Dr Ramesh Punjani, general and laproscopic surgeon at Fortis hospital, Mulund, said, “Rane was brought to us with dipping blood pressure and heavy bleeding.”

He added that the bullet had pierced through the left side of Rane’s chest, injuring his left rib cage.
“The bullet had travelled from chest to diaphragm and injured his abdomen, liver and intestine.
The emergency CT scan showed he had lost more than a litre of blood, apart from air getting accumulated in the abdominal cavity,” he said.

Doctors took him for emergency surgery where the perforations were sutured with packing and blood-stopping agents. “We successfully removed the bullet from his right chest wall,” said Punjani.

Rane remained on ventilator for one day and was shifted out of the ICU after three more days. “He had an unbelievable recovery and was discharged in eight days; unbelievable given that so many vital organs were injured. The bullet had punctured the abdomen in one place, larger intestine had two holes and there was one in left and right lobe of liver,” said Punjani.

The Bhandup police have registered a case under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code and under relevant sections of the Arms Act.

According to the police, the assailants, aged between 18 and 25, used a .32 pistol to commit the robbery. The police also suspect the same gang’s involvement in the firing on a commuter in a local train at Nahur station on December 7.