Surat: Doctor who tried to give Covid man life gets lifeline

SURAT: Dr Sanket Mehta, the Surat-based anaesthetist who won a million hearts by risking his life to intubate a Covid-19 patient, will finally walk out of the Chennai-based MGM Hospital.
Dr Mehta’s hospitalization lasted nearly 96 days, one of the longest for any coronavirus patient from Gujarat. The 37-year-old was flown to Chennai’s MGM Hospital on September 13 after his condition in city-based BAPS Hospital deteriorated.He was hospitalized after testing positive on July 28
His wife Pinal told TOI that Dr Mehta has developed speech problems and talks in sign language. “But he is able to breathe without any external support now. In the sign language, he told us that he was happy to have helped the elderly person despite he being on oxygen,” she said.
It was on August 11 that Dr Mehta had risked his own life by removing his oxygen support to intubate a 71-year-old patient who required ventilator support in the same ICU at BAPS Hospital. Later, his condition deteriorated because he was off oxygen support for nearly 15-20 minutes to help the other patient.
On September 13, he was airlifted from Surat to MGM Hospital as he became critical and was dependent upon extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment.
Dr KR Balakrishnan, chairman and director of cardiac sciences at MGM Hospital, told TOI, said in a month of so, Dr Mehta will be able to start practising again. “He has fully recovered fully and only requires speech and physiotherapy now.”
Dr Jayesh Thakkral, president of Surat Anaesthetics Association(SAA) told TOI, “We are very happy that Dr Mehta has recovered fully. We will ensure that he gets proper treatment in Surat.”