Service before self: Hero jawans carry pregnant woman in waist-deep snow

Srinagar/New Delhi: A 'Khairiyat' (welfare) team of the Army posted in a north Kashmir village rescued a woman with pregnancy-related complications by carrying her for several kilometres in waist-deep snow and ensured that she reached hospital in time to give birth to a healthy baby.

The team received a call on Tuesday from a distraught Riyaz Mir, a resident of Dard Pora village near Tangmarg area of Baramulla in north Kashmir, saying his wife was in labour and the family was unable to take her to hospital because of heavy snowfall, an Army source said.

The woman, Shamima, had developed severe pregnancy-related complications due to which both her and the unborn baby's lives were in danger.

Following the call, the base commander located at Uplona village lost no time and trekked nearly five kilometres along with a resident medical officer to reach the family, the source said.

The entire Army unit swung into action and three teams were immediately formed — one cleared the road for the pregnant woman's movement, the second cleared the snow till the helipad and the third cleared the road till Kanispora, connecting the area with the district headquarters in Baramulla, the Army official added.

Over 100 men from the Army and 25 civilians were engaged in the six-hour operation which involved the foot patrol taking the woman on a stretcher to Uplona through waist-deep snow.

Once at Uplona, she was stabilised and immediately taken by an Army ambulance, with the Army Medical Officer, to Baramulla hospital as the soldiers kept clearing the snow ahead of the ambulance as it moved along the snow-covered road.

The Army team accompanying the Mir family waited till the woman gave birth to a baby, said an officer.

"It was really wonderful presence of mind on part of the officers and men of the Army who adopted a multi-pronged strategy to save the woman," said Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, who heads the strategic Kashmir-based XV corps, and had issued instructions for the creation of such teams.with agency inputs