Chetan Kumar Cheetah fights back again, taken off ventilator after nine days

NEW DELHI: Chetan Kumar Cheetah, a CRPF commandant who sustained multiple bullet injuries in a gun battle with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017 and survived, has fought back again.

The officer was put on

ventilator

support at AIIMS Jhajjar on May 30 after developing serious complication due to

Covid-19

. Then, the doctors said they were not too confident about the outcome, but, in a rare success, his condition has improved, and he has been weaned off the ventilator and put on high-flow

oxygen

.

Dr Sushma Bhatnagar, chairperson of Covid services at

National Cancer Institute

(NCI) in Jhajjar, Haryana, which is run by AIIMS, told TOI that the Kirti Chakra awardee officer was conscious, able to communicate and taking semi-solid food orally. “If he remains stable, our next step will be to provide counselling and focus on his nursing care so he can recover fully,” the doctor added.

Cheetah was the commanding officer of CRPF’s 45th battalion in Kashmir Valley in February 2017, when he suffered multiple bullet injuries in the brain, right eye, abdomen, both arms, left hand and in the buttock region.

The doctors at AIIMS Trauma Centre had performed multiple surgeries to save him then. They first stabilised him and then different teams operated separately — ophthalmologists took care of the wound in the left eye, but the right one couldn’t be repaired, orthopaedics worked on the fracture in the limbs, while critical care experts planned antibiotic therapy to prevent infection. He was discharged in April 2017, and in 2018 he was back on duty.

“Only a few patients who require ventilator support after suffering from severe Covid-19 recover fully. It is the fighting spirit of Cheetah and the efforts of nurses and doctors that has made the recovery possible. If there is no serious complication, he may well be discharged soon,” said a doctor.

Cheetah was rushed to AIIMS on May 9 with complaints of low oxygen saturation after testing Covid-positive. Initially, he was kept in the ICU on oxygen support. The doctors said his condition improved with anti-viral therapy, but there was a sudden deterioration necessitating ventilator support.


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