Face of Brussels blasts returns to Mumbai, admitted to hospital

Jet crew member Nidhi Chaphekar, who was injured in the Brussels airport bombings in March and whose picture became the face of the terror attack, returned to Mumbai on Friday morning.
Nidhi, who has not yet recovered from the injuries suffered in the terrorist attack, arrived at 7.30 am on a Paris-Mumbai Jet airways flight and was taken to Breach Candy Hospital straight from the tarmac.En route the hospital, the ambulance carrying Chaphekar made a brief stop at an Andheri East hotel where she met her children Vrishi, 11, Vardhaan, 14, sister-in-law Madhuri and her mother-in-law.
Airline officials revealed that Nidhi is low on immunity and doctors have advised her not to be in contact with people who could be suffering from cough, cold or carrying any other infection.
On March 22, three bombs went off - two at the Brussels airport and one at Mallbeek metro station - leaving 35 people dead, including the three suicide bombers.
Nidhi was on her way to board a Jet flight for Newark when the explosions took place. Nidhi suffered 15 per cent burns and fractured an ankle. Her colleague, Amit Motwani, too was injured.
While Motwani is still recovering at a Brussels hospital, Nidhi, who was treated at Grande Hospital de Chaleroi, 40 km from Brussels, was discharged on Thursday afternoon and taken to Paris where she boarded the flight to Mumbai. Nidhi, who is still wheel-chair-bound, is being accompanied by her husband Rupesh Chaphekar, and bother-in-law Nilesh Chaphekar besides the airline's support staff and its chief medical officer.
Nidhi, who has been with Jet Airways since August 1996, spent 25 days in a medically induced coma at the Chaleroi hospital and underwent extensive skin grafting. "Her fractured ankle is yet to fully heal," an airline official said. Nidhi's sister-in-law Madhuri said: "We are happy that Nidhi is on the road to a fast recovery and returning to India. We have been talking to her every day."