“Rocking,” said Chetan Kumar Cheetah to reporters as he was wheeled out of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences after a 45-day battle with multiple injuries suffered in a gun battle with terrorists in Bandipora in the Kashmir Valley.
After taking nine bullets from terroirsts, suffering multiple injuries to his brain, eyes, abdomen, arms, hand and buttocks, he survived a long spell in coma as doctors at the AIIMS Trauma Centre battled to save the life of the 45-year-old commandant of the 45th battalion of the Central Reserve Police force (CRPF).
Doctors said it was nothing short of a miracle. Specialists in the trauma centre said Cheetah’s GCS Score, a test done to gauge the severity of a brain injury, was M3 when he was admitted. Now it is M6 with all vital parameters stable.
Three soldiers and one militant were killed in the gun battle in the Hajin area of Bandipora district on February 14. Cheetah was among 15 security personnel grievously wounded.
She soldier’s wife Uma Singh said, “I’m proud of what Chetan has done.''
She looked visibly relieved as she recalled receiving news of the Bandipora encounter. Cheetah would call her at a particular time every day. On Feb. 14 he did not. “I knew something was wrong. So I called up the control room and I learnt of the encounter and his injuries.”
The couple live in Delhi and have two schoolgoing children.
How Cheetah was saved
Immediately after the encounter, the CRPF commandant was first taken to the military base hospital in Srinagar. However, due to his comatose state, he had to be airlifted to the AIIMS trauma centre. Within 24 hours of admission, surgery was conducted to remove a portion of the skull to reduce the intra-cranial pressure. Cheetah was put on heavy antibiotics to reduce infection and his wounds were repeatedly cleaned.
Prof Anurag Srivastava of the AIIMS Department of Surgery said Cheetah's life was saved by the first surgery. After his condition stabilised, different teams of doctors operated separately to treat the injuries. Ophthalmologists took care of the splinter wound in the left eye but the right eye could not be repaired. Simultaneously, orthopaedics worked on the fractures in the limbs while critical care experts planned his antibiotic therapy.
Dr Amit Gupta, professor of trauma surgery and critical care, described the recovery as a miracle. “The recovery and the pace with which it happened is no less than a miracle,” he said.
CRPF’s first volunteer
In the force, Cheetah was always known for his derring do. “Unko dekh lenge, Sir,'' he would tell his senior colleague Rajesh Yadav while leading his team out on an operation. Every time information trickled in about terrorist presence or stone pelting, Cheetah would be the first to volunteer for the strike party.
As commander of the 45th battalion of CRPF based at Sumbal in Bandipora district, he was always out to prove that ''we are no less than the Army when it comes to dealing with terrorists.
Yadav recalled the day, February 14, when information regarding the presence of terrorists came in. As always, Cheetah was the first volunteer. He never believed in sending junior officers to a gunfight. He always led from the front. When he was hit, he continued firing.
“At the base hospital (in Srinagar, when I first saw his x-ray report, I was shocked to see that a bullet had pierced his skull,” said Yadav, who is the commandant of the 161th battalion of CRPF. “But his grit pulled him through.”
Cheetah is said to be a dedicated family man. “His family visited Srinagar just a few days before that encounter on February 14 and he posted their photographs on Facebook.
Former CRPF director-general K Durgaprasad said Cheetah is a fighter on field and off field. “It is a miraculous recovery. I can only say that it was his fighting spirit that brought him back.”