Palghar locals turn door into stretcher, carry pregnant woman through floodwaters

In a flooded village in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, locals turned a house door into a makeshift stretcher and waded through chest-deep water to carry a pregnant woman in labour to the hospital, ensuring she reached in time.

The woman later delivered a baby boy at the Saphale Rural Hospital, and both the mother and the child were doing well, an official at the medical facility said on Wednesday.

A video showing the rescuers making their way through the flooded water has gone viral on social media.

Priyanka Ravi Yadav, a resident of Hanumanpada in the Maykhop area near Kelve Road, suddenly went into labour on Tuesday.

With roads submerged outside her home and the village cut off after heavy rains, calling an ambulance was impossible.

As Yadav’s family panicked, local ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) worker Divya Gharat and social worker Chetan Gawad rushed to her home and quickly mobilised a small team of locals.

Thinking on their feet, they pulled out a wooden door from a nearby house, placed Yadav on it, and lifted it onto their shoulders before stepping into the flooded waters.

The team waded through chest-deep water, carefully balancing the stretcher and determination and crossed the flooded stretch to safely transport Yadav to the Saphale Rural Hospital, Gharat said.

The woman later delivered the baby at the hospital under the supervision of doctors.

“The situation was terrifying, and the water was rising rapidly. We knew we couldn’t just sit and watch. The roads were gone, so we used what we could find - a house door - and moved as fast as we could through the water,” Gharat said.

The hospital’s medical officer, Dr Shubhangi Sanap, told PTI that both the mother and child were fine.