Nurse Saves 20 Pregnant Women During Mumbai Terror Attack

When nurse Anjali Kulthe arrived for her night shift at Mumbai's Cama Hospital on November 26, 2008, she expected a routine evening caring for 20 pregnant patients. Instead, she watched through a window as two heavily armed terrorists shot the hospital's watchmen and turned her workplace into a war zone.

Gunfire echoed through corridors. Grenades shook the building. But Anjali didn't freeze or flee.

She quickly locked ward doors and began moving terrified patients to safer areas of the hospital. Then came an impossible challenge: one woman went into labor during the siege.

Delaying the delivery could have killed both mother and baby. But reaching the labor room meant climbing stairs while bullets flew and explosives detonated nearby.

"My concern was that the woman and baby should be safe," Anjali later said. Holding the frightened mother's hand, she guided her step by careful step up the staircase, knowing each moment carried deadly risk.

They made it. Doctors delivered a healthy baby boy while the attack raged outside.

Anjali immediately returned to her other patients. By sunrise, all 20 women under her care had survived the night.

When asked if she felt afraid, her answer was stunning: "I wasn't scared at all." She credits the power of her nursing uniform for focusing her mind entirely on her patients rather than herself.

That sense of duty ran deep. Her father had stayed at his airport control tower post during a major 1979 fire, refusing to evacuate until he safely guided two landing aircraft. His example shaped the woman she would become.

Why This Inspires

Weeks after the attacks that killed 166 people, authorities asked Anjali to identify Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive. Her family begged her not to go, fearing for her safety.

She went anyway. "Someone has to take a step forward for the country," she told her crying parents.

Standing face to face with the man responsible for unimaginable bloodshed, she identified him without hesitation. He laughed and confirmed her identification.

The encounter haunts her differently than you might expect. She was struck by how young he was and how little remorse he showed.

Even today, the sound of firecrackers sends her back to that November night. The memories linger, but so does her pride in the uniform she wore and the lives she saved.

Actor Kangana Ranaut's upcoming film "Bharat Bhagya Vidhata" will tell stories like Anjali's, highlighting the doctors and nurses who protected patients during India's darkest night. For her bravery, Anjali received a medal for courage.

But the real reward was simpler: 20 mothers and their babies went home safely because one nurse refused to let terror win.