‘No gloves, no sterile blade’: Nurse delivers baby aboard Duronto train with knife and thread | Mumbai News

Passengers hung bedsheets around a side lower berth to turn it into a makeshift labour room, and a nursing student on the train joined in.

“There was no delivery kit, no gloves, no scissors, no sterile blade, nothing. I first asked if anyone had a new razor blade to cut the umbilical cord but nobody did. Finally, a passenger handed me a knife. I washed it thoroughly and sanitised it using the hand sanitiser I was carrying before using it,” she said.

With a thread the mother had, Bhaisare tied and cut the cord, delivered the placenta, cleaned both with water, cotton and napkins, and placed the newborn on her mother’s chest to breastfeed. “It all happened inside the moving train. My only concern was to ensure both mother and baby remained safe,” she said.

According to a Railway Protection Force report, railway staff attended the train when it reached Chalisgaon around 2.50 am. Anjum, her newborn daughter and her two children were shifted by ambulance to the Rural Hospital there, where doctors found both mother and baby stable. Her husband, physically disabled and in Nagpur, was informed over the phone.

“I wasn’t scared. There was simply nobody else who could help her. She had been in labour for a long time and was exhausted. As a nurse, I knew I had to do what I had been trained to do,” said Bhaisare, who later checked on the baby through railway officials.

Bhaisare said the first-aid box had only basic fever medicines, cotton and a few syringes. “At the very least, trains should have basic obstetric emergency supplies,” she added.

Anjum, now with her family in Nagpur, told The Indian Express, “I was so scared. I thought neither I nor my baby would survive. But Allah was kind enough to send Nurse Minu, who had the courage to help me deliver my baby in a running train. We will always be grateful to her. She is now part of our family. When my daughter grows up, I will tell her this story and how Nurse Minu saved both our lives.”

Bombay Hospital Medical Director Dr Rajkumar Patil commended Bhaisare, calling her actions an example of clinical competence and compassion under pressure.

A Central Railway official said every train manager carries a first-aid box with dressings, bandages, antiseptic cream, paracetamol and other basic medicines. If a passenger falls ill, the control room alerts the next station, which arranges an ambulance and a railway doctor or the nearest government hospital.

“In the recent case, our staff acted promptly. The train departed from Nagpur on July 23 and reached Mumbai on July 24. A passenger alerted the train manager about a pregnant woman in coach F5, and with the assistance of fellow passengers and railway staff, the delivery was safely conducted before an ambulance was arranged at the next station. Our team coordinated the entire response efficiently.”

Such incidents are extremely rare, the official said, adding that while staff extend all possible help on humanitarian grounds, the Railways’ primary responsibility is transportation, and equipping trains with more advanced supplies such as gloves and blades “is a policy decision.”