Amazon driver saves Mumbai schoolgirl from horrific injury: ‘Iron pierced her cheek’

An Amazon delivery driver held onto a metal gate for 30 minutes to save a schoolgirl. (Image credit: pratik_salunke/Twitter)

An Amazon delivery driver, a school watchman and a local resident of Thane came together on Friday morning to save a schoolgirl from horrific injuries.

The incident occurred at Vasant Vihar Municipal School in Thane, Mumbai, amid pouring rain on Friday morning, reports the Free Press Journal. A 12-year-old student was playing near the metal gate of the school when the gate gave way and a part of it pierced her cheek. Her screams alerted the school watchman and an Amazon delivery executive, Ravi Bhandari, who was passing near the school on his bike.

Bhandari says he jumped off his bike and rushed towards the girl after hearing her cry for help. “As I got closer, I saw that a metal piece of the gate, which had been jutting out, had embedded itself in the right side of the girl’s face, very close to her eye,” he told the Free Press Journal. “The girl was terrified and any movement on her part could have resulted in a more serious injury.”

In a remarkable feat of bravery and quick-thinking, Bhandari held onto the metal gate for 30 minutes to ensure it would not injure the schoolgirl any further. Meanwhile, a local resident, Pratik Salunke, who lives across the street from the school, heard the commotion and rushed down from his third-storey apartment.

Salunke and the school watchman requested a passerby to contact the nearby Vasant Vihar municipal hospital for help, after which a team headed by Dr Mushtaq Khan rushed to the spot.

Dr Khan was able to successfully remove the metal piece embedded in the girl’s cheek and she was then rushed to the hospital along with her parents, who had by then reached the school.

Pratik Salunke later posted about the incident on Twitter, praising Amazon delivery driver Ravi Bhandari for his part in saving the schoolgirl.

Ravi, delivery boy of @amazonIN helped a girl who fet with a freak incident in Thane. She was playing on her school gate when it gave away and a part of iron pierced through her cheek, missing her right eye by an inch. Ravi hold on to the gate for 30 min untill help arrived.(1/2) pic.twitter.com/ydH700G72j

— Pratik Salunke (@pratik_salunke) July 1, 2022

Speaking about the incident, Bhandari said, “It was easily the most terrifying experience of my life. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and I can’t stop thinking about what I would have done if, God forbid, something like this happened to her.”