Impaled on 3 bars, he survived 5-floor fall

Three iron bars penetrated his chest and abdomen but construction worker Kamlesh Kumar (22) miraculously survived after a five-hour surgery, reports Sanjeev K Ahuja.

Three iron bars penetrated his chest and abdomen but construction worker Kamlesh Kumar (22) miraculously survived after a five-hour surgery.

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Kumar fell 60 feet from the fourth floor of an under-construction commercial building in Sector 32, Gurgaon, on Wednesday morning and landed on three iron bars.

Two 10-foot bars passed clean through his body, while the third — two feet long — lodged in his pelvic area.

A slip

The accident occurred at 9.30 am on plot 52, where a private construction company is making an office building for an export house. Mithlesh Kumar Yadav, an eyewitness and construction foreman, said he rushed to the spot after he saw a worker stuck in the bars.

“Kamlesh Kumar was working at the fourth floor. He had probably slipped from the height as the safety belt had snapped,” said Yadav.

Yadav rushed back to the project office and raised an alarm. Sunrise Hospital was called for an ambulance.

Caught in the bars

“It took us about 10 minutes to cut him free from the bars. We had to cut two long bars from both ends and one from one end with an electric cutter,” said Yadav.

Long surgery

The doctors said that the surgeons used exploratory laparotomy to extract the iron bars from the body to minimise the bleeding during the operation that ended after five hours at 3.30 pm.

“We mended his liver, diaphragm, stomach and colon and administered five units of blood. He had not been bleeding even after the mishap as the bars were stuck in the body, plugging the holes,” said Ahmad.

Kumar was conscious when he reached the hospital.

“After surgery, we shifted him back to the intensive care unit where he will remain on life support system and under strict observation for the next 72 hours, which are very crucial for his survival,” said Ahmad.

‘Will survive’

“The patient is stable and we see all the chances of his survival, as the operation was very successful,” said Dr Ahmad about Kumar’s chances of survival.