Severed arm of woman in MRT-3 accident reconnected

Doctors were able to reconnect in an early Wednesday morning surgery the arm of the 24-year-old woman, who fell on the tracks of the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3) on Tuesday afternoon.

According to Cesar Chavez, the transport undersecretary for rails, Angeline Fernando would still be under observation until Friday following the operation reconnecting her right arm, which was cut off after she fell on the gap of the second and third train cars at the northbound platform of the Ayala station.

Chavez said that Fernando’s parents told him that prior to the accident, their only daughter has a history of getting dizzy, especially when she is around a large crowd.

“Whenever we go to church, she often gets out because she has hard time breathing when she’s with a lot of people,” Chavez quoted Fernando’s mother Gloria as saying.

The transport official added that he learned that Fernando was previously brought by a friend to Makati Medical Center due to hypotension (low blood pressure).

At that time, Fernando and her friends were just strolling in a Makati City mall.

Earlier, Chavez said that the MRT-3 would shoulder Fernando’s hospital bills.

On Wednesday, Chavez said that they will also request financial assistance from other government agencies for Fernando, who is the family’s breadwinner.

Meanwhile, Chavez said that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) will also look into the response of the MRT-3 management during the incident, especially that a woman who was at the scene criticized on Facebook the staff’s supposed lack of preparedness to respond to emergencies.

Celia Castillo said that “good thing one woman was courageous enough to tend to [Fernando].”

“She was asking for a cloth to use [on Fernando]. I gave my cardigan. She tied it on [Fernando’s] upper arm to hopefully stop the bleeding. And I had to tell the guards, please get a medic, call an ambulance. Lahat natataranta (Everyone was panicking). No staff had the courage to take the arm from the rails. Please MRT management equip your people for this kind of situation,” Castillo said in her post that has been shared by over 10,000 users.

Chavez pointed out that the MRT staff, especially the safety and security unit, are trained to respond to emergencies.

He noted though that while “at the time of the incident, there was no MRT staff in the platform” there were two security guards who assisted Fernando.       /kga