hit by at least nine bullets during a gun battle with terrorists

Shot 9 times, CRPF commandant Chetan Kumar Cheetah talks again

NEW DELHI: Doctors are describing it as nothing short of a miracle. Chetan Kumar Cheetah, a CRPF commandant who had slipped into deep coma two months ago after beingin Jammu and Kashmir, is now conscious and talking.Doctors at the AIIMS trauma centre, where Cheetah spent a month in ICU, told TOI on Tuesday that he is fit to be discharged. When he was brought in, the 45-year-old had bullet injuries in his head, the upper limbs were badly fractured and the globe of his right eye had ruptured.“His GCS score, a test to gauge the severity of brain injury, was M3. He was in deep coma. Now his score is M6. He is conscious and all vitals are stable,” a doctor said.At least three soldiers and one militant were killed in the encounter in Hajin area of Bandipora district of Kashmir on February 14, where Cheetah got injured. Sources said the terrorists had received prior information about the attack on their hideout.“We are planning to send Cheetah home on Wednesday,” Dr Amit Gupta, professor of trauma surgery and critical care at the centre, said the recovery and its pace was no less than a miracle.The CRPF commandant was first taken to military hospital in Srinagar where medications were given to prevent bleeding. However, given the extent of the injuries and his comatose state, it was decided to airlift him to the AIIMS trauma centre.Within 24 hours of admission, surgery was conducted to remove a portion of the skull to reduce intra-cranial pressure. Cheetah was put on heavy antibiotics to reduce infection and his wounds were repeated cleaned, doctors said.“Once he was stable, different teams operated separately to treat the injuries. Ophthalmologists took care of the wound in left eye but the right eye couldn’t be repaired; orthopedics worked on the fracture in the limbs while critical care experts planned his antibiotic therapy.But it was not the medical and surgical intervention alone that helped Cheetah spring back to life. His wife, Uma Singh, said the CRPF commandant’s penchant for fitness and strong willpower helped too.“He is a very determined person and a fitness freak. I always knew he would recover,” she said.Singh, who lives in Delhi, said Cheetah would call him daily at a particular time but on the day of the encounter he didn’t, which gave her a premonition that something was wrong. “Later in the day, when I called the control room, just out of anxiety, they told me he was injured,” she said.The CRPF commandant has two kids, both of them studying in school, and Singh said they are waiting for dad to return.