THE mother who watched in horror as the pram carrying her baby son rolled off a station platform and under a 250 tonne train says holding him in her arms afterwards was like a religious experience.
Shweta Verma, mother of six-month-old Saurish - the miracle child who escaped with only minor bruising - told Woman’s Day she feared her son was dead.
"It was a life and death fear," she told the magazine.
"I thought I'd lost my child, who I love more than anyone or anything else - but then the next moment all I could think was how to find him and see how he was."
The drama unfolded in Melbourne on October 15 as a city-bound train rolled into Ashburton station.
Ms Verma - who had never travelled by train with her son - had prepared for boarding by taking the brake off the pram.
"I took the brake off and my hands left the pram for a fraction of a second, and suddenly it was flying off the platform. There was a downward slope on the platform and it rolled away so quickly … I couldn’t catch it.
"I tried to grab it but it had gone."
Shocked witnesses watched as the train slammed into the pram at 35km/h, shunting it 30m as the driver tried frantically to stop. Ms Verma went blank, then leapt onto the tracks with 18-year-old student Aaron Dryden, who crawled under the train to recover Saurish.
Ms Verma said holding her crying son was an unforgettable experience.
"I was crying. I’d been thinking, 'Oh God' – and now all I could say was 'Thank you God. You have taken good care of him and it is because of your grace he is in my arms'.
"I would equate it to having been in excruciating pain and shock, and suddenly being washed with an overwhelming feeling of relief.
"He was still crying, but he was with the person he was most familiar with. He seemed to know, 'I’m okay now, I’m in my mother’s arms'."
Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:46 pm