BENGALURU: “I had to voluntarily snap off my arm to save my life,” said 29-year-old Mudit Dandwate, city-based entrepreneur who was attacked by a crocodile on Sunday at Thattekere lake, off Kanakapura Road.
Dandwate, who runs a healthcare startup, is on a mission to design a prosthetic arm for himself.
It wasn’t some adventure television show. Dandwate experienced it live and is glad that he is alive. Talking from his hospital bed on Tuesday, a now-composed Dandwate recalled those heart-stopping moments.
It was at 6.30am that Dandwate and his friend set off on a long drive from Indiranagar with two dogs. “Whenever I have a stressful week, I go on drives,” he said. At about 8am, they parked their car at a distance of about 60m from the lake before heading to a nearby temple. The dogs, one Labrador and another Doberman, later jumped into the water.
“A part of the lake was fenced, but the gate was open. The dogs ran into the lake. I was worried. I got into the waters to bring them back.”
In a matter of seconds, what appeared to be serene water had turned into a pool of blood. The dogs were rescued by then.
“The crocodile grabbed my left hand from behind and draged me under water. When I saw it, I froze. But knew I had to save myself. My arm was in its jaws. I felt my arm from below elbow dangle. Obviously, under water, I could not be mightier than the crocodile. I had to vent out my anger. I punched it a couple of times.
“I realised that most of my arm was cut. The only way to save myself was to snap off the remaining part myself. I did just that,” he said.
Mudit Dandwate (29), city-based entrepreneur who was attacked by a crocodile on Sunday at Thattekere lake, said on Tuesday, “What makes me more happy apart from the fact that my life was saved is that the dogs are safe. That was priority for me and will be.”
He lost his arm partially when a crocodile bit him when he rushed to save the dogs which ran into the lake. He said that there were warning boards around the premises but were in bad condition and illegible.
Dandwate said he did not scream for help when the crocodile suddenly surfaced and latched on to his arm as there were none in the vicinity.
“After I got myself freed from the crocodile, I swam to safety. Then I wrapped my arm with my shirt to stop the bleeding. On seeing a few locals, I tried to communicate. They did not understand English. We started walking 50mts towards the car,” he said.
Meanwhile, two forest officials passing by on their bike came to his rescue. When he gave them his car keys, they brought the car to where he was standing. He was then taken to Hosmat hospital.
Dr Ajit Benedict Royan, director, Hosmat, said “We have seen many patients who lose limbs but none like him. It is so nice that Mudit and his family have taken it in the right spirit. It is motivating to see a patient so cheerful.”
PROSTHETIC ARM
Mudit Dandwate runs a biotech startup in the City. “I will go superhuman now. I will design a prosthetic arm for myself which can probably do much more than a normal hand. I started planning about the design while I was in the ICU. It will materialise soon with the help of other co-founders of the startup,”he said.