21-yr-old survives accident, walks into hospital severed arm in hand
NIGHTMARE It took several surgeries to reattach arm; will take a year to completely heal
NEW DELHI: Three months ago, the world of 21-year-old Sanchit Gupta came crashing down when his car collided with a truck and he lost his arm.
Gupta’s car rammed a speeding truck from behind when he was on way home from a friend’s place late in the night. The truck driver sped away, leaving an injured Gupta behind.
Gupta doesn’t recall how long he sat in his mangled car. His first recollection was noticing a severed arm on the road and the horror of discovering it was his own. His his left arm had been severed from the elbow and thrown out of the car on the impact.
“For a few seconds, I went blank, it was a dreadful and disturbing sight,” said Gupta, a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) graduate from Indraprastha University.
He looked around for help, but there was no one. The accident took place near GT Karnal Road, which was deserted in the late hour.
Bleeding heavily and in pain, Gupta dragged himself out of the car to pick up his amputated arm. He wrapped it up in a cloth and once again looked for help.
“The only thought in my head was that I needed to reach hospital quickly. Luckily, I found an auto. When the driver saw my condition, he drove like a maniac and took me to Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh. Throughout the journey, I was dizzy but hung on to consciousness,” he said.
Gupta reached the hospital at 3 am and it took a series of surgeries to reattach his arm. “We were all amazed at his courage. If he had been a bit late in reaching the hospital, we couldn’t have been able to save his arm,” said Dr Satyendra Vir Kharbanda, senior plastic surgeon, Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh.
He also had a head injury for which he was simultaneously treated and was under the care of the hospital for the next three weeks.
“It took two months for the bone to fuse and with physiotherapy, his arm will function normally in about a year. He needs two more surgeries in few months,” said Dr Kharbanda.
Gupta can already move his arm a bit and plans to do an MBA next year. “We had lost all hope, we just wanted him to live. Now that he’s alive, he needs to rest for a year before he can pursue his goals,” says his father Bal Krishan Gupta, who runs a garment business near the family home in Pitampura.