IAF Chopper crash: Expertise of private doctors tapped for treatment of lone survivor

As Group Captain Varun Singh continues to be in a critical but stable condition at the Indian Air Force’s Command Hospital in the city, a bevy of specialist doctors and experts from non-military hospitals have been approached for medical inputs.

According to sources, doctors from both government and private hospitals have been in communication with Air Force doctors at Command Hospital, advising them about medication (especially antibiotics), general care and the use of specialist medical equipment.

“This is all being done largely in an unofficial capacity, as many of our doctors know their counterparts in Command Hospital. In addition, there have been instances where patients in Command Hospital have been referred to our hospital for care,” explained a source at a large hospital in the city. The hospital declined to provide an official statement on the matter.

Specialists are said to be involved in providing their expertise on matters related to neurology, burns care and internal medicine.

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These developments come a day after revelations that the burns unit and the Rotary Ashirvad BMCRI Skin Bank at the Bangalore Medical College
and Research Institute (BMCRI) had supplied the Command Hospital with processed skin.

Sources said that the skin bank had supplied Command Hospital with 1,000 square centimetres of processed skin over the weekend. However, a skin expert noted that considering that the average human has 20,000 sq cm of skin, this is a relatively small amount.

“If the patient has suffered excessive burns, the treating hospital would need additional supplies of skin. Plus the replacement skins will have to be changed every 10 days to two weeks after application,” the expert said, adding that the skin grafts serve as natural bandages to help people with burns wounds recover faster.

However, skin experts lamented limited skin donations due to the pandemic.

“It is only since September that there has been a boost to donations. We have had about six donations per month, which is three times more than previous months, where donations numbered between one and two,” the expert said.

The doctor added that prognosis was grim for the patient adding that while in western countries, patients with up to 93% burns “survive for weeks”, in India, patients with over 20% burns often do not.

Skin received from skin donations can not be used as is and must go through a process of chemical and microbial cleansing before they can be applied on burn victims. This takes at least eight weeks.

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