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Journalism of Courage
At the Government Medical College (GMC) in Anantnag, South Kashmir, the red alert was sounded at 2.30 pm on April 22 — there had been a terror attack on tourists at Baisaran in Pahalgam. Dr Ruksana Najeeb, anaesthesiologist and principal of the institute, did not waste any time getting the hospital ready.
At first, two critical care ambulances were rushed to Pahalgam, 50 km away. She began evacuating the wards and got 30 beds ready. The blood bank, the ICU were alerted and entry into the hospital — one of the biggest government hospitals in South Kashmir with a heavy footfall of patients — was cleared.
Two hours after the red alert, at GMC Anantnag, the first patients started coming in. Seventeen of the injured, some in critical condition, were eventually brought in, while a few were taken to the Civil Hospital in Pahalgam.
At GMC, six senior doctors of the hospital — cardiologists, surgeons and anaesthesiologists including Dr Najeeb — and extra staff were ready as the patients began to be wheeled in.
Among the first patients was A Parmeswaran, a 31-year-old ENT doctor from Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. “When he arrived, he had no pulse and no BP. He had bullet entry and exit wounds in his neck, his abdomen was filling with blood, and his right arm was shattered,” says Dr Najeeb. Her patient was fast sinking.
After multiple scans and tests, the team of conducted conducted a series of surgeries on Parmeswaran that began at 6.15 pm and went on till 10.20 pm. “We resuscitated the patient, started ultrasound-guided cannulation. We had to be careful with his neck or he could have been paralysed,” she adds.
The doctors finally recovered two bullets from his body, one intact and one that had splintered across his abdomen. “We managed to stabilise him and it was nothing short of miraculous,” says Dr Najeeb.
On April 24, after he was placed on ventilator at the GMC, Dr Najeeb saw Parmeswaran to the critical care ambulance, which took to the airfield, from where an air ambulance moved him to the trauma centre of the All India Institute of Medical Science in Delhi.
While she was in the operation theatre with Parmeswaran, the hospital had received 16 other patients from Baisaran and the casualty ward had started filling up. “Another patient, Balachandra S, came in with a myocardial infarction (heart attack). He didn’t seem physically injured but his vitals did not look good. After tests, we thrombolysed him and moved him to the cath lab for angioplasty,” she adds.
On Friday, April 25, after the last of the 17 injured Pahalgam patients had been discharged, Dr Najeeb finally went home — after three long days and nights at the hospital. “Now my eyes are burning,” she says.
In these three days, while Dr Najeeb did not have a change of clothes, the doctors and staff at the hospital arranged food and accommodation for attendants, and brought clothes for patients who may have needed it.
Anantnag Chief Medical Officer Dr Sajad Parvaiz said that through the day, on April 22, as news of the attack spread and the toll from the attack at Baisaran kept mounting, neighbouring districts began sending their ambulances. By late evening, at least 30 critical care ambulances were sent to the spot.
At the Civil Hospital in Pahalgam, where the dead were brought in, along with some of the injured, a doctor, who doesn’t want to be identified, says, “When the injured were brought in, we began treating them. The women were in shock and had to be treated for hysteria. The more difficult task was the identification of bodies.”
From where the motorable track ends in Pahalgam, the Baisaran meadow is about an hour’s trek on foot. Doctors at the hospital said they were provided All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) by the administration to bring the injured down to the ambulances.
Of the 17 injured, two were brought in a critical condition with gunshot wounds and others with fractures and injuries from falling.
One of the tourists, Subodh Patel, had injuries around the neck and the right side of his chest, say doctors who attended to him at the GMC. He was airlifted to the 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar the same evening.
On the day of attack, says Dr Najeeb, she briefly looked at her step count. It read 18,000 for the day.
