Nepal quake survivor brings home tales of horror, grit

Katukuri Sandeep, a student of College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, accorded an emotional welcome on arrival

Karimnagar: After surviving long hours of horror, panic and stalking death in tremor-hit Himalayan kingdom, Katukuri Sandeep, a student of College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur in Nepal, has finally reached his home in Bankers Colony in the town.

Narrating his harrowing experience in the quake-hit land, an emotionally charged Sandeep explained how senior doctors, performed kidney transplantation surgery on two patients, even as the earth under their feet was staging the dance of death and devastation in the entire country.

Sandeep, who safely returned home on Tuesday, said the first tremor was felt in the area at around 11.50 am on Saturday while a patient was undergoing kidney transplantation operation in the medical college hospital.

While students, patients, doctors, teaching and non-teaching staff ran away from the college and hospital buildings to save their lives, a team of doctors led by Natraj Prasad, resident director, did not come out from the operation theatre and went ahead with the surgery even though their lives were at risk, he said and added that they came out only after completion of the operation.

Thought there was no power supply after the quake devastation, they finished their task with the help of generators. The intensity of the quake was recorded on Richter Scale as 7.1 and the epicentre of the quake was 80 kilometers away from Bharatpur.

Even though the Nepal government made frequent announcements about the possibility of tremors, the college doctors also attended on another emergency kidney transplantation operation at around 11. 30 am on Sunday, when the quake also hit the hospitals. Both the patients were safe, said Sandeep, who spent a day under panic conditions.

Stating that earth shivered for about 22 times up to evening on Saturday, Sandeep said he had decided to stay back at the college to serve others. Worried about the situation of patients who had been shifted outside and treated on the roads, he thought to provide service to them voluntarily along with seniors and other students who were doing internship in the hospital but vain.

“Hundreds of patients were brought out of the hospital and were made to sleep on the roads to provide treatment. It was a horrible situation. I was shocked to see those scenes. At that time, I have decided to stay back in the college and serve the patients. But, I had to return to India as the health condition of my mother was deteriorating every day,” he said.

Sandeep is one among 25 students from Telangana studying in Bharatpur Medical College. Out of 262 from India, 42 students belong to two Telugu-speaking States. His father Bhaskar Reddy and mother Sukanya expressed happiness over the safe return of their ward.

Speaking to media persons, Sukanya, who had fallen sick after she heard the news, thanked everybody including State and Central governments for taking all possible measures for the safe return of Sandeep.