Fighting odds for 18 days, Supratim finally discharged

New Delhi, Jul 29 (UNI) Twenty-three-year-old Supratim Dutta today created a medical history of sorts when he was discharged from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, 18 days after a five-feet long iron rod pierced through his body in a freak road accident.

Doctors at AIIMS trauma centre said they have seen worse cases, but not all live to tell their tale. He could have been discharged a week ago but doctors were monitoring the wounds and skin loss he suffered in the accident.

Ripley's Believe it or not, (a product of Ripley Entertainment Inc, that deals in bizarre events so strange that viewers might question the claim) has decided to carry Dutta's story to its viewers. Doctors have also provided Dutta's story to the New England Journal of Medicine along with photographs of the operation.

''The pain was excrutiating...but by the time I reached the hospital, I was exhausted and had no energy to even cry,'' Supratim told reporters here.

The rod entered Supratim's body from the front when his car rammed into material piled at a Metro construction site in South Delhi early this month. He managed to call up his family and friends after the accident and was later rushed to AIIMS, where the tricky surgery was performed.

''When he was brought to the hospital, we saw that an angle (rod) had pierced through the upper part of his abdomen and had come out of the thorax (chest) on the left side of the body,'' said Dr MC Misra, head of the department of the trauma centre.

Fortunately, the rod had missed his vital parts, like kidney and heart.

A team of anaesthetists, the Trauma Centre specialists and surgeons, and workers from the AIIMS blood bank struggled for nearly six hours to save his life.

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