A 70-year-old farmer in Uttar Pradesh is being forced to relive an old horror because of the under-construction warehouse collapse at Garden Reach.

Ram Suhawan Yadav’s youngest son is one of the workers critically injured in the June 24 crash. He is awaiting spinal surgery at SSKM Hospital. Just under two years ago, in September 2024, Yadav’s eldest son was grievously injured in a bike accident at his hometown at Bahraich in UP. He is still in a coma.

“Our family’s savings had already been wiped out. I spent nearly ₹30 lakh on a brain surgery for my elder son at a private hospital in Lucknow. To pay for the treatment, I had to sell my one-acre farmland,” Yadav told Metro in a shaky voice at the trauma care unit of SSKM Hospital on Sunday afternoon, hours after reaching Calcutta on a train.

The youngest son, Viswa Prakash, 28, came to Calcutta in April.

Both the eldest and youngest sons had started working at a young age, travelling across the country for construction jobs to support the family. He has another son, who went to Dubai recently to work as a carpenter.

“Viswa had spent more than five years working at construction sites in Gujarat before coming to Calcutta for the first time in April. He had joined work at the warehouse barely two months before the collapse,” Yadav said.

Viswa called home every day before leaving for work. On Wednesday morning, he made the call around 8.30am, three and a half hours before the crash. “He asked whether everyone at home was doing well,” Yadav said.

The family learnt about the accident from one of Viswa’s friends. “One of Viswa’s friends called me. When I tried calling my son, his phone was switched off. I have not been able to sleep since June 24,” Yadav said outside the trauma care unit.

Yadav reached Calcutta on Sunday after hospital authorities informed him that his signature was required for the surgery.

As of Sunday evening, four workers were still undergoing treatment at the hospital, all at the trauma care unit.

“The condition of the patients is improving; we are planning to discharge one of them within a few days. Another has been shifted from the critical care unit to the ward. A third is undergoing treatment at the CCU. The fourth one (Viswa) will undergo a critical surgery on Monday,” said Rajat Chowdhury, in charge of the unit.

Hospital authorities said that till Saturday, 13 patients had been discharged from the hospital. No one was discharged on Sunday.