Mumbai Nurse Saved 20 Pregnant Women During 26/11 Attack

While bullets echoed through Mumbai's Cama Hospital on November 26, 2008, nurse Anjali Kulthe made a choice that would save 20 lives.

Two heavily armed terrorists had just shot the hospital watchmen and entered the building where Anjali was working her night shift. Under her care were 20 pregnant women who suddenly found themselves trapped in a hospital transformed into a war zone.

Instead of fleeing, Anjali locked the ward doors and began moving terrified patients to safer areas. Grenades exploded nearby, but she stayed focused on one mission: keeping her patients alive.

Then came an unimaginable challenge. One woman went into labor and needed immediate medical attention, but the labor room was floors away through corridors filled with gunfire.

Anjali took the frightened mother's hand and guided her up the stairs, step by dangerous step. "My concern was that the woman and baby should be safe," she later explained.

They reached the labor room safely. A healthy baby boy was born that night, brought into the world while terror raged just floors below.

By sunrise, all 20 pregnant women under Anjali's care had survived.

Why This Inspires

Anjali credits her father for teaching her about duty over fear. In 1979, he stayed in an airport control tower during a major fire to guide two landing planes to safety before evacuating himself.

That same spirit guided her through the longest night of her life. "I was driven by passion," she told reporters. "This was the power of my uniform. It made me think not about myself, but about my patients."

Weeks later, authorities asked Anjali to identify Ajmal Kasab, the captured terrorist. Her family begged her not to go, but she believed someone had to step forward.

Standing face to face with the man responsible for killing 166 people, she identified him without hesitation. For her courage, she received a medal for bravery.

Today, her story inspires Kangana Ranaut's upcoming film Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, which celebrates the hospital workers who protected patients during India's darkest night. The memories still affect her—firecracker sounds trigger flashbacks—but she has no regrets.

Ordinary people become extraordinary when their moment arrives, and Anjali Kulthe proved that healing can triumph even when surrounded by harm.