08 October,2021 08:14 AM IST | Mumbai | Vinod Kumar Menon
Abhijeet Mahamulkar can now open his eyes, but his vision is not restored yet, he can’t speak nor move. He is still in a vegetative state
Had it not been for the CCTV footage from Amitabh Bachchan's Pratiksha Bungalow in Juhu, the Mahamulkar family as well as doctors would have remained clueless about the reason behind the severe traumatic brain injury Abhijeet Mahamulkar sustained on the afternoon of July 15.
It has been two months since Abhijeet, 49, was operated on, but he continues to be in a comatose vegetative state in a suburban super speciality hospital. His treating doctors initially believed that he might have sustained a brain haemorrhage, as the family informed them that Abhijeet was on blood thinners post his recovery from Covid-19 a month before. It is believed that the blood thinners led to severe internal bleeding in the brain after the hit-and-run incident on July 15.
During the surgery, the neurosurgeon opened his skull and saw that every part of his brain was injured. It was only five days after the surgery that Mahamulkar's family and doctors learnt about the accident. Mahamulkar, who was riding his motorbike, was hit by a speeding autorickshaw near a signal close to Pratiksha Bungalow. Though he wore a helmet, he had not tightened the chinstrap. The CCTV footage also showed that Mahamulkar was thrown off the bike due to the impact and his helmet flew, before his head banged on the road. However, as there was no external damage to either his body or the bike, the accident would never have come to fore.
Mahamulkar was found unconscious on the road and was taken to the hospital by a good samaritan. The police have since seized the auto but the driver is still absconding. His family and treating doctors are now hoping for a medical miracle as Mahamulkar was in a life and death situation twice in less than a month. His wife, Ujwala, has a message to all two-wheeler riders: "Abhijeet had not tightened his helmet chinstrap, leading to severe brain injury. You should not repeat the same mistake. Wear a helmet and never forget to tighten the chinstrap. No one should go through the situation that Abhijeet and we are going through."
Mahamulkar ran a real estate business and was well-known for his safe driving and maintaining his health. "My husband, since his childhood, had never been to a doctor or got admitted in hospital for any ailment. Even at this age, he was fit and did his regular exercise," said Ujwala, who works for a leading nationalised bank. The couple and their two children - a son and a daughter - live in Vile Parle West. Abhijeet would shuttle between his Vile Parle house and Satara, where his elderly parents live.
According to Ujwala, their lives changed completely sometime after April, when Mahamulkar developed fever while he was in Satara. She said he was avoiding check up and was taking medicine prescribed by his doctor friend, suspecting it to be a case of viral fever. "However, on the eighth day, when his condition started deteriorating, I forcibly got him to do a high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and other tests. The test reports confirmed he had contracted Covid-19 and his lungs were infected," she said.
"We tried to get a hospital bed with oxygen in Mumbai, Pune and even Satara but to no avail. Then I asked my husband to use his network, and his friends finally helped to arrange a bed in a private hospital in Satara. The doctors tried their best to treat Abhijeet, but his condition was getting worse with every passing day. The doctors then asked us to reach Satara," recalled Ujwala.
She said, "When we reached the hospital, my son and I also tested positive for Covid. I was admitted to the same hospital as my husband, who was in the ICU. The doctors had given up on my husband, saying he was not responding to the Covid treatments and were planning to put him on ventilator support."
"I was keen to get my husband shifted to a better facility and contacted my brother and relatives, who managed to get a bed at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune. Abhijeet was admitted there while I continued with my treatment at Satara. After a few days I was discharged and my husband also showed improvement. He was finally discharged on June 2. The doctors had advised him to take blood thinners as post-Covid treatment" recalled Ujwala.
Mahulkar's family said he was very particular about physical fitness and would exercise regularly. He used to weigh 75 kilograms, but lost 20 kgs during Covid. He was keen to gain weight and start his routine, though he was complaining of some weakness.
In a bid to get fit, he left to buy some home exercise equipment on July 15. "I was in my bank when I got a call informing me about my husband's hospitalisation. I initially thought it might be due to weakness or that he got a stroke. When I rushed to the hospital, the good Samaritan told me my husband was lying unconscious on the road and that he had got him to hospital," recalled Ujawla.
Mahamulkar gained consciousness after nearly three hours and complained of severe headache. However, he could not recall the accident. "My husband had no injury on his body and there was no scratch on the two-wheeler, so we did not suspect an accident," said Ujwala.
"After a few hours, he was once again slipping into an unconscious state. The treating doctors were prompt to reach out to Dr Shashank Joshi, a neurosurgeon, who decided to carry out an emergency surgery which started a little past midnight and went on till 4.30 am in the morning. The doctors did their best to save my husband's life, even though they were not very sure about the outcome," she explained.
Ujwala said, "My husband was on life support as he had developed an infection and his kidney stopped working as well. He was put on dialysis and remained unconscious since his surgery. I decided to seek a second opinion from other known experts, but everybody had the same opinion; there was no way out. This only pushed me further into depression. I finally decided to trust and believe the treating doctors who did wonders to pull my husband out from the jaws of death, for the second time; the first was due to Covid complications."
"After sustained line of treatment and care by doctors and medical staff at Arogya Nidhi, my husband can now open his eyes, but his vision is not restored yet, he can't speak nor can he move. He is still in a vegetative state. We do not want to lose him. Our hope and trust is with the treating doctors, and we are waiting for a medical miracle. He will come back to us one day and will start exercising with his brand new equipment, which is at home waiting for him," said Ujawala.
She added, "I would not have managed all of it alone; it is because of the wholehearted support from my parents, brothers and well-wishers including my colleagues that we are able to face the biggest challenge of our life. Abhijeet's parents, who are in their late seventies, are also concerned and are praying for his speedy recovery."
"Abhjieet was treated for Covid-19 and was advised to take blood thinners as post recovery treatment. When he was brought to Bhartiya Arogya Nidhi Hospital, his health was rapidly deteriorating due to internal bleeding, which was due to the blood thinners that he was having, and he slipped into an unconscious state. We had no other option but to plan for an emergency surgery to save his life," said Dr Shashank Joshi, consulting neurosurgeon.
"His brain injuries got aggravated and he developed a blood clot called a subdural hematoma around the brain. His frontal lobes also had contusion hematomas and small brain had another contusion hematoma. We removed a large skull bone, typically called bifront parietotemporal, for decompression of the oedema which was caused due to traumatic injury to the brain," explained Dr Joshi.
He added, "Post surgery, Abhijeet was on life support for a few days and had even developed an infection in brain. We were not sure about the prognosis and response to the treatment, but to our surprise, Abhijeet responded well. He has a strong willpower to fight back. We then shifted him to Hiranandani to provide him with Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy. This situation could have been ignored had Abhijeet tightened the helmet chinstrap."
The presence of mind and timely action taken by Vikram Sanghvi, 43, a businessman from Vile Parle, to shift an unconscious Abhijeet to a nearby hospital has left the Mahamulkar family indebted to him.
Speaking to mid-day Sanghvi said, "That afternoon around 1 pm, I was returning from Bhartiya Arogya Nidhi Hospital where my aunt was undergoing treatment. I was on my two-wheeler and noticed a crowd near Big B's Pratiksha Bungalow. A man was lying unconscious on the road and I saw his helmet lying a few meters away."
"Looking at the helpless unconscious victim on the road, I wanted to help. Since more than 15 years, I have been donating blood regularly as my blood group is rare (O negative). The thought that I have the power to help someone gives me a lot of motivation. The same motivated me to step forward in this unfathomable situation," said Sanghvi.
"The people in the crowd were willing to help but hesitant as they did not want to get involved in any medico legal issue. I took the initiative and requested the onlookers to help me move the unconscious person to a hospital. They helped me get him into an auto. I picked up all the belongings of the victim and followed the auto on my bike," he said.
He added that the medical staff at the hospital were prompt to start the treatment. "I had also collected his mobile phone. Luckily, the emergency number belonged to his wife and I informed her about the situation. She was working in a nearby bank and could rush to the hospital. I am still in touch with the Mahamulkar family and do get apprised about Abhijeet's health condition," he said.
Sanghvi also has a message for two-wheeler users, "Please use proper helmet and tighten the chinstrap. Do save two or three contact numbers on your mobile as emergency contacts, for any medical emergency." He also added, "Most importantly, the public at large, instead of being mute spectators, should take the initiative of shifting the victim to a nearby hospital and should not worry about any legal consequence or policy inquiry for helping and saving a life."
Piyush Tewari, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Savelife Foundation - a Delhi-based non profit organisation committed to saving lives on roads in India and beyond since 2008, said, "Each year more than half a million people are seriously injured or disabled in road crashes in India. Head injury is one of the most significant causes of brain damage and paralysis. In many cases, victims survive but remain in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives. The only way to prevent this situation is to wear a helmet - not just place it on the head, but fasten it around the chin so that it doesn't fall during a crash."
According to a 2019 report by the Union ministry of road transport and highways titled "Road Accidents in India" released in September 2020, two-wheelers account for 35 per cent of total road accident deaths on National Highways falling under NHAI, followed by cars, taxis, vans and LMVs (18.6 per cent), and pedestrians (14 per cent). This is followed by trucks (10.7 per cent), buses (4.9 per cent) and bicycles (2.9 per cent). The figures are not very different from the percentage share for these road user categories for National Highways as a whole. In 2019, Maharashtra made up 10.5 per cent of the total road crash deaths and Mumbai made up 2.8 per cent of the total deaths (6,436) in crashes where two wheelers were the impacting object.
National
Total crashes - 1,67,184
Deaths - 56,136
Injuries - 1,73,293
Maharashtra
Total crashes - 13,330
Deaths - 5,894
Injuries - 11,145
Mumbai
Total crashes - 967
Deaths - 183
Injuries -1,054
Maharashtra ranks 2 in two-wheeler deaths in 2019: In 2019, Maharashtra ranked second in two-wheeler user deaths in the country, making up for 10.1% of the total road crash deaths involving two-wheelers. The gender-wise split is as follows:
National - 51,305 (male), 6,960 (Female) total - 58,265
Maharashtra - 5,290 (male), 694 (female) total - 5894
Road crash deaths due to non-usage of helmets: In 2019, Maharashtra witnessed the second highest number of deaths due to non-usage of helmets in the country.
Region
National - 30,148 (drivers), 14,518 (passengers) total - 44,666
Maharashtra- 3,682 (drivers), 1,646 (passengers) total - 5,328
Road crash injuries due to non-usage of helmets: Maharashtra also made up for 8.2% of the total road crash injuries due to non-usage of helmets in 2019.
National - 68,260 (drivers), 45,354 (passengers) total - 1,13,614
Maharashtra- 5,561 (drivers), 3,800 (passengers) total - 9,361
Source- SaveLife Foundation
