On a seemingly ordinary morning of March 5, 2025, T C Sreemol, a Principal Correspondent with The Times of India, began her day by scanning news on her phone. Her first assignment was to inspect the condition of halt railway stations in the city suburbs of Kochi. Little did she know that her day would take a terrifying turn, leaving her with life-altering injuries and posing grave questions about road safety.
A Fateful Crossing and a Sudden Impact
After travelling by bus to Aluva and getting down at the Kalamassery Apollo Tyres Junction, Sreemol began crossing the highway. She had safely crossed the median and was on the zebra line when disaster struck. A speeding motorcycle, driven recklessly by a youth who had just overtaken a car, appeared from nowhere. Before she could react, the bike rammed into her, its handlebar hitting the left side of her stomach with brutal force.
The impact left her numb and sitting on the road, vulnerable to other speeding vehicles. The biker also skidded and fell a few feet away. As excruciating pain set in, help arrived from a bystander and soon after, the highway police. Both the victim and the biker were sent to a nearby hospital. Sreemol walked in, while the youth was carried in a wheelchair, a stark contrast to the severity of the internal injuries she had sustained.
A Cascade of Critical Injuries and Medical Ordeal
In the hospital's casualty ward, her pain became unbearable. Medical examinations revealed the shocking extent of her trauma. A CT scan showed six fractures in seven ribs and a contusion on her left lung, making breathing agonizingly difficult. A subsequent scan delivered more devastating news: a grade 5 rupture in her spleen—a vital organ for immunity—and a fracture in the L3 vertebrae of her spine.
She was immediately put on oxygen support and moved to the ICU, where doctors monitored her for life-threatening internal bleeding. Faced with the immediate recommendation of a splenectomy (surgical removal of the spleen), Sreemol agreed without fully grasping the implications. However, her colleagues intervened fervently, arranging her transfer to a larger hospital for a second opinion.
The ambulance journey was an ordeal in itself. She spent five days in the ICU, feeling increasingly dizzy from internal blood loss. The emotional toll hit hard when her father visited; she was struck by the pallor of his bloodless face, a mirror to her own deteriorating state. Nurses were strict, denying her food and water to protect her ruptured spleen, offering only wet cloths for her lips.
Long Road to Recovery and Lifelong Consequences
After ten days, she was discharged with a strict warning to stay near the hospital due to the risk of her spleen rupturing again or developing an infection. With fractured ribs and vertebrae, she was forced to lie on her back for weeks, unable to turn even during follow-up visits. Months later, she resumed her job, believing she had regained her health.
Five months after the accident, doctors delivered a permanent shock. They informed her that the damage to her spleen was so severe that she would have to live with the ruptured organ for the rest of her life. She must now vigilantly protect her abdomen from any impact and undergo scans whenever she experiences pain or fever.
Nine months on, the trauma persists. Sreemol experiences pain and severe anxiety at the sight of speeding vehicles. The accident has turned her life and career upside down, leaving her unable to sit for long periods. Her story ends with a poignant question that echoes the concerns of many citizens: Whom should I blame for my plight? The youngster, his parents, or our system which fails to inculcate the habit of law-abiding behaviour in citizens?
