Saddam Qureshi, the sole survivor of the incident in Chhattisgarh’s Arang in which two cattle transporters from Uttar Pradesh were found dead along with him below a bridge earlier this month, remains on ventilator support in a critical condition. According to doctors treating him, the next two to three days will be crucial in determining his recovery.
Mr. Qureshi, 25, is being attended to by a team of 14 doctors at the Shri Balaji Super Speciality Hospital in Raipur. He has undergone a brain and a gastro-intestinal surgery. Since then, he has been unable to speak. According to the assessment by doctors, it could take a while before Mr. Qureshi can talk. “His body is fighting well but there are several injuries. The next 48 to 72 hours are crucial. The immediate challenge is to get him off ventilator support and then we can move to a higher brain function test. We are using light and sound therapies to help him,” said Dr. Deepak Jaiswal, medical superintendent of the hospital.
Dr. Jaiswal is part of the team treating Mr. Qureshi. The team has experts from neurology, critical care and orthopaedics. A neurologist from the team said decompressive craniectomy, a surgical procedure done in the case of traumatic brain injury, was performed on Mr. Qureshi.
The circumstances leading to the two deaths remain unclear as the lone survivor is still not fit to provide his statement on how the events folded in the early hours of June 7 when he and two others — Guddu Khan, 35, and Chand Miya Khan, 23, — were found below the Mahanadi bridge after being allegedly chased and waylaid by a group of men. His family has said the three were attacked over cattle transportation.