MUMBAI: Five months in hospital, partial paralysis and 25 surgeries is the price Nishant Kedia had to pay for something as seemingly innocuous as leaving his laptop on charging mode while he slept. It so happened that the gadget exploded near his face and left him with life-threatening burns.He watched death from close quarters while on prolonged ventilator support at Bhatia Hospital , Tardeo, where he was airlifted. After battling depression and pain for months, Kedia (40) was back on his feet on Monday and flew to Ranchi, his hometown, to start life afresh.A complete recovery will take a long time as he would need physiotherapy and reconstructive surgery. More importantly, his children were overjoyed to have him home after so long. “Doctors have said he will get better faster at home,” his cousin, Pradeep , told TOI. The two jointly run a cement business in Ranchi. The business went downhill since the accident. Kedia, his wife and two sons live in a flat with his parents.On December 9, 2017, Kedia was in the bedroom working on his laptop. When he started to doze off, he pulled a blanket over himself, leaving his laptop on charging mode on the bed. Around midnight, his wife, who was in the living room, heard an explosion. She tried to open the bedroom’s door, but couldn’t perhaps because of air pressure created by the fire. Once the door was opened, neighbours, in the flat by then, doused the flames with water. “The room was gutted. Not a single piece of furniture or appliance was spared. Kedia had the presence of mind to rush under the shower. Or else his burns would have been worse,” said Pradeep.Kedia was taken to a private hospital, but they denied him entry. Pradeep then took him to a nursing home, where he was for 11 days before being brought to Mumbai. “He had 50% full thickness burns and came to us with severe septicemia,” said Dr Shailesh Ranade , plastic surgeon and coordinator of the burns unit at Bhatia Hospital. “His entire face, upper limbs, back and legs were badly burnt. The burns were so deep that they had completely destroyed parts of his ears, nose, and exposed bones on his elbows.He also had serious respiratory burns and required prolonged intensive care with ventilator support.” Dr Ranade said Kedia suffered a stroke and the complications reduced his heart function to 15%. “We had to perform multiple surgeries. Skin allografts were used from the skin bank to protect his wounds till they could be covered with his own skin through skin grafting.” For Kedia’s family, the challenge was to lift him out of depression. At times, he would just break down and doctors would tell him not to give up. Kedia knows he's had a narrow escape. “It's a miracle that I have survived. I had never thought I would live to see this day.I'm looking forward to see my children,” he told TOI before taking his flight. More than 100 friends and relatives waited outside Ranchi airport to welcome him. There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd