Srivastava was conscious but in excruciating pain throughout, trapped below the waist under a huge concrete slab, reports Ipsita Pati. His first-floor flat took the maximum impact of a vertical cave-in of living rooms, from the sixth floor to the second, in Tower D on Thursday.
The entire mass of concrete tore through the roof of his living room, burying Srivastava and his wife under the rubble.
While a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team bore paths through the debris to try and get to Srivastava, four doctors from the health department kept him conscious during the rescue operation. “We kept talking to him throughout the night. He was in panic. We gave him hope that he would be extracted soon. We told him how rescuers were getting closer to build his confidence. He couldn’t eat or drink anything, so we put him on intravenous drips,” said Dr Rajesh Yadav, who headed the team of doctors that remained by Srivastava’s side till he was extracted from the debris in his drawing room around 11am by the NDRF on Friday.
Srivastava had to be heavily sedated and injected with painkillers to keep him from passing out from the pain. NDRF personnel and Dr Yadav’s team also kept rubbing warm coconut oil on his right leg, the limb that remained stuck under the rubble, so that it could be smoothly brought out without causing a lasting injury.
Dr Yadav told TOI he got a call from the chief medical officer around 7.30pm on Thursday about the cave-in at the building. He reached with minutes. Chintels Paradiso isnt too far from where he lives. “He was very scared,” Dr Yadav said. “My first job was to calm him down.”
After initial attempts to bring him out failed, amputation was considered at one point as Srivastava could not be extracted. “We first aimed to stabilize the debris. Simultaneously, a medical team was also working to stabilize the victim. We used mountaineering rope technique and air lifting bags in the operation,” an NDRF official said, adding the first floor was unstable as the debris from five living rooms above it had crashed down with velocity there. “There was a possibility of a cave-in,” said the officer.
Till then, Dr Yadav was the only medical specialist around. Three more were later sent to the site – Dr Neeraj Solonki, an anaesthesiologist, Dr Vikram, an orthopedic surgeon, and Dr Virender Verma, a general surgeon.
The doctors ruled out amputation as an option, saying it could put Srivastava’s life at grave risk. “Medical science never recommends on-spot amputations,” said Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer, to whom the health department reports. There was another risk. Srivastava could not be administered anesthesia in the position he was in. “If the blood did not clot, he could have died. There was also the risk of neurogenic shock, which meant unstable blood pressure, heart rate and temperature,” the chief medical officer said.
As the NDRF carried on with efforts to pull Srivastava out, the challenge for the doctors was to keep him conscious. And the clock ticked. “It is not easy for a person to stay calm in that position. He hadn’t eaten anything since the collapse around 6pm and was hungry. We needed to talk and distract him. So, we decided to tell him how the rescue operation was progressing. We told him how the debris was being removed from around him and that he would be freed in a few hours. We needed to ensure his vital organs worked fine. So, we gave him IV fluids. We did not leave him alone for a minute,” said Dr Vikram.
Friday morning brought a flicker of hope as the NDRF had managed to remove much of the debris. But Srivastava’s right leg was still under the rubble that frustrated rescuers. He was exhausted. Amputation was discussed again. The NDRF team had one more fear. “It was not clear if the concrete slab was resting entirely on his body. What if we removed that and it led to another collapse of the floors below?” an NDRF officer said.
But the health department team stuck to its stand – amputation in such a scenario was not an option for them. Chief medical officer Yadav, who had reached the spot by then, asked for a liter of warm coconut oil. The idea was to give Srivastava a heavy dose of sedatives and use warm oil as a lubricant to pull the leg out, instead of trying to make the slab budge.
A mix of intramuscular painkillers and sedatives was administered and rescuers waited for 20 minutes for the medicines to take effect. Srivastava was injected with another dose of painkillers. “This would have an effect for only two minutes. The NDRF team had to pull out the leg within that time,” Dr Yadav said.
The constant rubbing of the warm coconut oil helped. A team of six NDRF personnel and two doctors pulled out the leg in less than 120 seconds at 11.24am. Srivastava was put in an ambulance and hastened to Max Hospital.
Police had created a green channel. “It was extremely critical to save not just his life but also his limbs. He was sent to Max as his family requested it,” CMO Yadav said.
According to Srivastava’s MRI report, he has a fracture in the right shoulder, but his legs are fine, and he is not in danger. The condition of his brain and spinal cord is normal, doctors at Max said.
NDRF commandant PK Tiwari said two battalions were deployed in the rescue operation at Paradiso. “We received the initial information at 6.55pm on Thursday. Our quick response team, which is posted in Dwarka, reached the spot by 7.05pm. Then teams posted at Ghaziabad also hastened to the spot. After an inspection of the site, the rescue operation started immediately. We made fox holes in the debris to remove the leg of Srivastava,” said Tiwari.
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