Man falls from 60 feet, survives

AHMEDABAD: It was a miracle when Bharat Patel, 47, survived an accidental fall from a 60-feet-high tank and ended up with fractures of the hand, chest and jaw. In yet another miracle, he also survived the rupture of the aorta-the main blood vessel of the heart-which is fatal in most cases.

Doctors at Apollo Hospital, who treated him for the rare traumatic rupture of the aorta with an eight-hour surgery recently, say it is a miracle that Patel is living with a ruptured aorta which is the prime vessel supplying blood to vital organs of the body.

“Patel had come to us with complaint of chest pain for sometime. His aorta was ruptured. But miraculously it was held together with surrounding tissues and formed a tumour-like structure. Usually, such patients do not survive. But Patel seems to be lucky,” said cardiac surgeon Dr Mehul Shah.

Patel works as a technician with ONGC in Mehsana and has been in and out of hospitals after the fall. His broken jaw is yet to be put together because of which he is on only liquid diet. Patel’s physician and deputy general manager, medical services, ONGC Mehsana, Dr RN Das said Patel has been undergoing treatment for nearly three years and needed to be given a moral boost to go for the surgery.

“There was an option of either living with the ruptured aorta waiting for something fatal to happen anytime or undergoing surgery. We convinced Patel to go under the knife to save his life,” said Das. He added that a delicate surgery was performed to replace the part of the aorta which was ruptured. “We put a shunt to ensure the blood supply to the lower body to organs like the spine and kidneys is not compromised. After replacing the ruptured portion using an artificial graft, we removed the shunt. The entire surgery lasted seven to eight hours,” said Shah.

Patel is looked after by his wife Naina who said they are hopeful that his health will now get better.