Ronit Gore, 13, one of the 21 students injured when a school bus caught fire on Thursday, succumbed to his burns on Saturday at the National Burns Centre, Airoli. Ronit was a class 8 student of Changu Kana Thakur school of Panvel.
“When Ronit was brought to the hospital, he had breathing problems since he had inhaled a lot of smoke. His lungs had collapsed. We did tracheostomy on him on Friday and he was kept on ventilation since then. On Saturday, sudden cardio respiratory arrests led to his death,” senior doctor Ganesh Pawar at NBC’s ICU department said.
Five more students are still in NBC — two are said to be stable while the others are critical with more than 50 per cent burns. Ankita Kurangale and Neeraj Kurangale, are the ones whose condition is stable while Neetu Thakur, Ankit Mohokar and Aniket Pokshe are the students who are battling for life.
“Ronit and his younger brother Rohan were in the bus that caught fire. Rohan, who has minor injuries, is in Life Line Hospital, Panvel, and is in stable condition. Their parents are shattered after the accident. They have been with Ronit at NBC since he needed
them more, while I was at Life Line Hospital,” Gore’s aunt said.
On Thursday morning at around 6.50am, the bus that was on its way to the school caught fire near Amardham Crematorium, New Panvel. The reason for the fire is not yet clear. Panvel police are still awaiting the reports of RTO and forensic experts who have taken the samples from the site.
Meanwhile, the driver, Vishwanath Maruti Phadtare, 24, and cleaner, Anil Bachule Yadhav, 20, who were arrested on Thursday have been remanded to police custody till Monday. While Phadtare who is also the owner of the bus claimed that he had the permit from RTO to ferry students in the bus, investigations have revealed that he in fact did not have the permission, said a police official of Panvel police station.
