KOLKATA: Subha Das is living a charmed life.
The 39-year-old, who works as a butler in Mumbai, has had three near-death experiences in as many months: he has not only fought Covid and survived a devastating hospital fire, but has also survived a frightening mid-air incident — just about an hour before he was to reach his Kolkata home — with minimal injuries.
On Monday, Subha was a passenger on a Mumbai-Kolkata flight that experienced a vicious bout of air turbulence, which left him and seven other passengers injured.
Even as Subha escaped with just a sprained neck, his 77-year-old father, Timir, seated next to him, sustained a spinal injury that might require a major operation.
Subha contracted Covid in Mumbai, developed pneumonia and was admitted to a hospital in Virar with severe respiratory distress on April 16.
Seven days later, while he was still in ICCU, a fire engulfed the unit.
Of the 17 patients there, 15 died.
Subha was one of the two who survived.
After a month-and-a-half’s stay in another hospital, he was travelling back home to south Kolkata’s Bansdroni with Timir, when the plane encountered extreme turbulence.
Apart from his father, two other fellow passengers were seriously injured: one had a gash in the scalp that required stitches, the other suffered an upper-arm fracture.
Recounting the terrifying minutes when the plane appeared to have spun out of control after hitting the air pocket, Subha said the aircraft shuddered, pitched and rolled violently.
“I was certain that I would die this time.
The flight captain repeatedly asked the passengers to stay calm, but the situation kept getting worse.
The ‘fasten seatbelt’ warning light flashed, and the flight attendants rushed up and down the aisle, urging passengers to buckle up.
The plane then began to shake violently and wobble.
We later learnt the turbulence had lasted only a few minutes but it seemed like an eternity,” Das told TOI on Tuesday, still shaken by the experience and concerned about his father’s condition.
The septuagenarian has suffered a disc collapse, which requires major surgery, doctors treating him said.
Such was the turbulence, recalled Subha, that some passengers fell off their seats and others bumped their head against the seat in front or the side panel.
“My father was wearing a seat belt.
I don’t know whether it had clicked shut or not, but when the plane shook violently, the belt came loose.
He was first thrown feet-first into the air, and then fell back on his seat before slipping on to the floor,” he said.
A doctor, who was also travelling on the flight, attended to Timir and said he had to be quickly shifted to hospital, but Subha says they had to wait 90 minutes after the flight landed before an ambulance transferred Timir.
to hospital, Subha says.
“My father was wincing in pain but the doctor at the airport made him lie on the aircraft seat for one-and-a-half hours.
He first said it was raining outside, then said there was just one ambulance available, which had taken a fellow passenger to the hospital, and that we needed to wait for its return,” fumed Subha.