HAD BJP leader Pramod Mahajan survived, he would have led almost a normal life, despite the bullets that were pumped into him by his brother, recently, remaining in his body! “Yes, there a number of patients coming to me with bullets lodged in their bodies for years after fighting in insurgency-affected areas,” says Col DC Agarwal, senior advisor, Surgery & Orthopaedic, Base Hospital (Central Command), Lucknow.
Even as civil doctors were attending on Mahajan at the Hinduja Hospital, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had suggested that army doctors remove the bullets lodged in his body after his brother shot at him from point blank with a Browning .32. “Simply removing the bullets from the body of an injured person does not guarantee him health,” says the Colonel, adding that, “Removing bullets to save life is just a hype created by Bollywood”.
He reiterated that in Mahajan’s case, the bullets were the problem for the people and the media and not the doctors attending on him. Further, discussing the Mahajan case, the Colonel said the BJP leader had serious abdominal and chest injuries resulting in hollow viscus damage to the liver and pancreas.
Before being posted to Lucknow Base Hospital, Col Agarwal had served for more than seven years in the insurgency-infested areas, where he got to handle a number of cases of gunshots and landmine explosions.
{{/usCountry}}Before being posted to Lucknow Base Hospital, Col Agarwal had served for more than seven years in the insurgency-infested areas, where he got to handle a number of cases of gunshots and landmine explosions.
{{/usCountry}}Elaborating, Col Agarwal said, “We need to understand that a bullet is a missile that enters the body with high velocity and gets lodged in the body, in the process, releasing enormous kinetic energy which, in turn, damages tissues, resulting in a number of health complications.” Therefore, he added, the first aim of doctors attending to the patient is to remove dead necrotic tissues and preventing blood loss. There are different types of wounds .
However, he said, severe gunshot wounds (as was in the case of Mahajan) may result in a number of complications like hypovolumic shock, multi organ failure, scepticemia, peritonitis, hepatorenal shut down, dessiminated intra-vascular coagulation (bleeding tendency), adult respiratory distress syndrome etc.
“If a person is shot with ammunitions like the LMGs, and HMGs, the injuries may be grievous as the bullet is heavy and travels with a high velocity. Col Agarwal further added that the blast injuries are devastating, and they are also seen in urban areas. As regards the expertise, he said that even the civil doctors are trained in handling the gunshot patients. “If there is any shoot-outs in the civil areas, the patients do not rush to us, they go to the civil doctors,” he said and added that the only added advantage “with us that we get to serve in the insurgency infested areas”.