A 37-year-old anesthetist, Dr Sanket Mehta, currently in ICU undergoing Covid-19 treatment, saved the life of a fellow patient, Dinesh Purani, who urgently needed intubation for ventilator support. Dr Mehta was admitted to the BAPS Hospital, Surat, and the incident happened on the night of 9 August. Purani, who was two beds away from Dr Mehta, collapsed and needed urgent intubation. The 71-year-old patient’s oxygen level was decreasing with each passing second that night. Intubation, in the opinion of medical experts, is an extremely important and urgent step done by an anaesthetist to save a collapsed patient’s life.
Dr Mehta was tested Covid-positive and later admitted to the hospital due to complexity in breathing. When the incident happened, he was on the oxygen support in ICU.
Hospital authorities informed that Dr Mehta needed around six litres per minute oxygen. Still, he got up from the bed to help the patient for intubation.
“Meanwhile, other admitted patients had informed him not to risk his life but the doctor gave preference to rescue a life rather than saving his own,” Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar reported.
Due to coronavirus pandemic, a strict safety protocol needs to be followed by hospitals and working staff. According to hospital authorities, as reported by TOI, their “anaesthetist could have taken 15-20 minutes to reach the ICU after wearing PPE kit. In the meantime, Dr Mehta removed his High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC).”
On being asked about the health status of the saved patient, CEO of BAPS Hospital Dr Parshottam Koradia was quoted as saying, “The elderly patient (Purani) is still on a ventilator in ICU, his condition is stable.”