The bullet stopped 2mm from his brain

Twenty-eight-year old Laxman Kumar was shot at point blank range between his eyes on the night of July 31. The bullet tore through his forehead, creating a hole two inches wide, and lodging less than 2 mm away from the most vital part of his brain. Rhythma Kaul reports.

Twenty eight year old Laxman Kumar was shot at point blank range between his eyes on the night of July 31. The bullet tore through his forehead, creating a hole two inches wide, and lodging less than 2 mm away from the most vital part of his brain that which controls breathing and heartbeat.

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The odds were stacked against Kumar, but he survived, thanks to a team of dedicated doctors.

Doctors at BL Kapur Memorial Hospital, who operated upon Kumar, consider his survival no less than a miracle. It took four hours for the five member team to just remove the bullet, in a surgery that lasted eight hours.

“In such cases, the bullet normally perforates the brain, resulting in immediate death. But in Laxman’s case, the bullet fortunately stopped at the brain surface.

If the bullet had pushed backwards even by a millimetre, he would have died on the operation table,” said Dr Maj Gen A S Bath, the head of the plastic surgery unit at the hospital.

Dr Bath has handled thousands of bullet injuries in his previous job as a surgeon with the Indian Army.

But Kumar had to go through a nightmare before landing at B K Hospital. Kumar, on his way to recovery now, says he was appalled at the apathy shown by doctors at the Delhi government hospital in West Delhi where he was rushed immediately after the incident at 2.30 am on July 31.

“Doctors in the emergency told me they couldn’t take out the bullet. They stitched the wound (with the bullet inside) and asked me to leave,” said Kumar, who still cannot believe he has survived the gunshot. “I can’t thank god enough.”

Eight hours had already lapsed by the time Kumar reached B L Kapur Memorial Hospital, and he had lost vision in his left eye due to the pressure that the bullet and the debris of shattered bones were applying on the optic nerve.

“The bones and the rest of the structure around the root of his nose were shattered, and we had to use five metal plates and some 30 screws to fix his bone,” said Dr Bath.

Kumar was discharged four days after the surgery on Thursday, and has been mandated rest for three weeks.