I just remember that I was somewhere near the Bapu Bazaar area when a loud explosion occurred, and then there was darkness. I don’t even know who brought me to hospital,” says Geeta Sahu, an injured at the Sawai Man Singh Hospital here.

Another injured, Ravindra Kumar Singh, is grateful for the timely help offered by a stranger. “I had splinters in my legs and abdomen and was bleeding profusely. If the person had not helped me in time, I would not have survived,” he says.

As the people here still struggle to recover from the horror of Tuesday’s serial blasts, Jaipur has emerged as the city that cares. Where strangers loaded the injured into their personal vehicles and rushed them to hospital. And where thousands queued up outside hospitals to donate blood.

In fact, hospitals had to turn away many people who wanted to donate blood as they didn’t have sufficient storage facilities. Within hours of the blasts, hundreds of students and social workers trooped into hospitals to donate blood. Long queues were seen outside hospital blood banks.

“As soon as we heard about the incident, we decided to donate blood. That was the least that we could do for the people of our city who have been hit by such a tragedy,” says Arvind Kumar, an engineering student.

“We were able to secure blood for 30-odd patients who underwent operations within three hours of the incident. We also stocked about 900 more units of blood, but had to turn away many others as we don’t have the facility to stock more units,” says Dr Ashok Panagariya, Dean, SMS Medical College & Hospital. In all, 600 units of blood were used for the victims.

... contd.