Injured officer returns home

After being hospitalised for more than a month, Hemant Khaire, 54, who had suffered severe internal burns in the fire at Mantralaya on June 21, was discharged from JJ Hospital in Byculla on Wednesday.

After being hospitalised for more than a month, Hemant Khaire, 54, who had suffered severe internal burns in the fire at Mantralaya on June 21, was discharged from JJ Hospital in Byculla on Wednesday.

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On their way back home, Khaire and his family stopped at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Dadar to give thanks for his 'miraculous' recovery.

Khaire’s recovery has surprised doctors. Khaire, a deputy liaison officer with the public relations department at Mantralaya, was trapped in the conference room on the sixth floor of the building. “I was trying to jump out of the window but fell on the floor,” said Khaire, who suffered severe burns in his lungs owing to inhalation of hot smoke.

He underwent a tracheostomy procedure to enable him to breathe through the ventilator. He was taken off the ventilator on July 8.

Khaire was taken off the ventilator after 17 days, but his condition had been critical until then. “Every time doctors told us that they would take him off the ventilator, we would fear whether he would be able to breathe on his own,” said Khaire’s wife, Mohini.

“Even the corneas in his eyes were burnt. We replaced the corneas and burnt tissue. Khaire is very fortunate to have regained complete vision,” said Dr TP Lahane, dean of JJ Hospital. On Tuesday morning, when the doctors asked the family to prepare for Khaire’s discharge, they distributed sweets and flowers among the hospital staff to thank them for their service.