-- -CIAL REPORT

AMITABH BACHCHAN member Babanrao Dhakne tried to barge his way through with the help of his burly

bodyguard. "This is absolutely ridiculous and heartless," said

BPCC(I) chief Murli Deora who had to push Dhakne out, "they are endangering the life of the man they claim to be praying

for." Well-wishers: The amount of

flowers brought into the hospital was staggering. In the three visiting

hours each day, Bachchan's wife Jaya, brother Ajitabh, and parents and sister-in- law were flooded with get-well cards and flowers from well-wishers. The diversity of his fan-following was proof of the man's overwhelming popularity: one morning

OR MILLIONS of movie-goers, last fortnight, Jaya Bachchan was app- the scene was a familiar one. The roached on the second floor landing by a tall, lanky frame of matinee idol girl who had to be supported by a nurse Amitabh Bachchan draped over a to walk. The young spastic handed Jaya a

hospital bed while white-coated figures card, stuttered out a prayer for Bachchan, - hovered anxiously around. This time, how- and was helped out.

ever, there was a critical difference-no On another -occasion Manmohan cameras panned from the shadows and the Desai, who along with a number of other scene being played out in the intensive care producers including Yash Chopra, Yash unit (ICU) of Bombay's Breach Candy Hos- Johar and Prakash Mehra, kept a near- pita1 was tragically real. Bachchan, the near constant vigil outside the hospital door, was indestructible superstar who had battled accosted by a 10-year-old dressed in rags. seemingly insurmoutable odds in thous- Crying bitterly, the boy told Desai that he ands of celluloid frames was now fighting was willing to give up any part of his body the most epic and riveting battle of all-for which could be used to save his hero. Said his life. a close colleague of Desai's : "We hear these

Since July 27, when he underwent an kind of words in the films we make, but it emergency operation in Bangalore after an was unbelievably moving to hear the sin- incident during shooting, Bachchan had cerity in that poor boy's voice." hovered on the edge of the final precipice Further afield, Bombay was studded while a team of specialists battled to keep with hoardings and posters praying for the him alive. All across the country, millions superstar's recovery. In the city's dailies of shell-shocked fans and the entire film get-well advertisements appeared regularly, industry held its collective breath while the and in temples like the city's famous Siddhi star's heroic and lonely struggle was relayed Vinayak hugely attended prayer meetings daily onto the front pages of national news- werei held to invoke blessings for the actor. papers. Childhood friend Rajiv Gandhi One parent reported that his eight-year-old broke off his trip to the United States to fly fainted on the roadside when she heard the back to Bombay to be at Bachchan's bed- misleading newspaper report that Bachchan side. And among Prime Minister Indira had actually succumbed. Gandhi's first appointments after her return Widespread Feeling: According to

- . was a flying visit to see the stricken star. producer-director Ramesh Sippy, a similar But though the Gandhi visits were brief rumour in Singapore last fortnight led to the

affairs, doctors have expressed concern at closure of almost every shop owned by the the constant visiting that has resulted in substantial Indian community there. "This situations that can only be described as could not have happened for anybody else callous. Disregarding Bachchan's condition, in the history of Indian cinema," says Sippy.

d of emotions that Amitabh has family, groups of "concerned visitors" have fighting the odds evoked among Indians across the globe are barged in at all hours of the day to try and absolutely phenomenal." see the star. While fans were turned away, rimmed from lack of sleep, was forced to Small wonder that medical progress the problem with film personalities and physically hustle Bombay Mayor P.S. Pai, reports were devoured and discussed as

I-- celebrities is acute. When Rajiv arrived, his family members, music director Kalyanji avidly as stockbrokers discuss market share 1 - almost half-a-dozen film personalities pus- and a number of other people. But nosooner prices. i hed their way into the rcu behind him. had they been pushea out, when a scuffle None followed the struggle for life more F Finally Bachchan's wife Jaya, her eyes dark- broke out outside the ICU as Janata Party keenly than Bombay's film producers for i

60 INDlA TODAY, AUGUST 31 , 1982

1 Staying Alive When Bachchan underwent an operation on

Monday, August 2, his lungs got infected and he developed pneumonia. In order to clear away the fluid in his lungs, a tracheal tube fl was inserted: at two-hourly intervals, he was giken a physiotherapic massage and forced to cough out the fluids through the tube. The tube carried air directly to his lungs: it was fitted to a bellows mechanism with oxygen regulating devices. Thus Bachchan was fed air and the respirator did his breathing for him.

A Swan Ganz catheter went,straight into his heart. This monitored various heart pressures. -

The area between the dotted lines represents the hollow abdominal cavity. In the first three days following the injury in Bangalore, this entire cavity filled up with bile and fecal matter from perforations in the intestine. As a result, all the organs in the region got infected. The liver got jaundiced and the intestines were covered with septic spots.

In Bombay, on August 2, Bachchan was operated on by reopening the Right Paramedian incision made in Bangalore. This incision leaves the whole cavity open to view: when the doctors opened him up, they found the whole region flooded with pus' and waste matter. The cavity was cleaned out with saline, betadine, metrogyl and chloromycetin.

After this, four corrugated rubber drains C ~ I were fitted. These have thin catheters inside them, which are used to pump in washes of normal saline, betadine, metrogyl and chloromycetin. These automatically kept draining the pus from his abdomen.

Bachchan was subjected to a rigorous regimen to keep his body functions stable. After the physiotherapic massage he was forced to cough out fluids through the tracheal tube. Immediately after the massage, his insides were washed out with antibiotics or salines, and the drained pus was sent for cultures. His bodily functions were monitored. This cycle continued day and night.

On the evening of August 9, his stomach started bleeding slightly internally partly as a result of the steroids he had been fed in massive doses to keep his body's fluid parameters normal. A Ryle's tube was inserted and his stomach washed out immediately and the bleeding thus minimised. At 11 p.m. that night a pus culture was flown to London where Guy's Hospital examined it to find out if any antibiotics unavailable in India could be more effective in combating the ills of the superstar.

i -

INDIA TODAY, AUGUST 31, 1982

ECIAL R E P O R T

whom Bachchan represents a bottomless gold-mine. His lean, brooding looks and his authoritative acting have made Bachchan not just a cult figure but the highest paid star (currently estimated at Rs 35 lakh per film) in Indian film history and keeping vigil with his fans were feverishly anxious pro- ducers who have crores riding on the star. Now, suddenly, Bachchan's larger-than-life screen image had been rudely stripped away and he lay stricken in a hospital bed, a mere mortal, vulnerable and dangerously ill.

Contrary to popular impression, the financial stake which rides on Bachchan's health is lower than ever before. Riding at the pinnacle of a career which has defined the state-of-the-art for the entire film in- dustry, Bachchan decided last January to reduce the killing pressure of work he had undertaken by indiscriminately signing on for projects. Bent on cutting down on the schedule which forced him to work up to three shifts a day after a serious bout of asthma in Delhi, the superstar spent the last few months completing existing projects and undertaking no new ones. As a result, when he had his accident in end-July, Bachchan had only two incomplete films on the sets, Coolie and Ramesh Bahl's Pukaar. Sippy's Shakti was already complete, Nastik was completed except for the dubbing, and one Madras film Andha Kanoon which featured Bachchan in a guest appearance. had a few sequences left to be shot.

Large Stakes: But for a film industry which has come to depend on Bachchan as its only instantly saleable name, the stake in

the actor was much greater than just an immediate matter of blocked finances. Lead- ing producer Prakash Mehra had planned two films around him Sharabee, and Kayaar, Ramesh Sippy was already planning his next venture Shatranj with Bachchan in the lead. Director Raj Sippy has cast him for Taala Chaabi and Amyad Khan's Lambee Chaudee and a host of other producers were reportedly waiting in the sidelines for him to start signing films once again.

With doctors predicting a minimum six-month convalescence and possibly a whole year off work for the star, it was clear that most producers would have to hold their horses. "But this delay means nothing at all," said Yash Johar emphatically, "any body can afford to wait eight to ten months with a man like Amitabh in your picture. Today he has eased the number of pictures in hand, but in the past he has been ill for three and four months at a time when he used to sign ten times the number of films, and nothing happened to anybody."

Denying that the film industry was only worried about its investment in the man, Rati Agnihotri, who stars opposite Bach- chan in Coolie, asserted: "From my conver- sations with producers I am certain that they are not bothered about their films so much as they are about the man himself. Not a single producer has spoken to me about his movie. I think they have all developed a genuine liking for Amitabh."

Fight Sequence: The key to Bachchan's survival is the medical drama that accom- panied the star's most exacting real-life role.

The high points of his battle were: July 24: Bachchan was in Bangalore

shooting Manmohan Desai's film Coolie and the tragedy struck during a fight sequence being filmed at the city's Jnana Bharati University campus. The university library had been rearranged to resemble the inside of a bank and the script called for the villain, played by Puneet Issar, an experienced stunt man, to kick Bachchan in the stomach. Bachchan was required to spin around from the blow and fall heavily on a steel table. In typical fashion, Bachchan refused to let a double take over and did the scene himself.

While landing on the table. however, his lower abdomen came in painful contact with the edge of the table. At first, nobody took note of the event. Desai applauded the star's realistic acting but stopped half-way when he and the rest of the crew realised that something was seriously wrong. Bach- chan, according toeye-witness reports, stood up, took two steps rubbing his stomach and then crumpled to the floor, his face con- : torted in agony. In the belief that it was a i temporary and minor injury, Bachchan was a

rushed back to the West End Hotel suite he had occupied for the past two weeks.

When the pain failed to subside, a doctor who was a family acquaintance was called in to examine the star. The doctor felt nothing serious was wrong and prescribed sedatives to let the star sleep it off. It was now around 8 p.m., almost five hours since the incident had taken place and his con- dition seemed to have worsened. Bachchan's actress-wife Jaya Bachchan, who had flown

Banner up at a Bombay building announcing a meeting for Amitabh Jaya Bachchan outside the entrance of the hospital

- - --- 62 INDIA TODAY, AUGUST 31, 1982 I

into Bangalore with their two children to spend the Id holidays with her husband, was becoming increasingly anxious. She later told doctors that he spent the first night in extreme agony.

July 25: The next morning, Sunday, Bachchan's personal physician, Dr K. M. Shah, flew down from Bombay in reply to an urgent SOS. He expressed his unhappi- ness with Bachchan's condition but being a general practitioner he lacked the authority to take the matter furt'her. His concern, however, was enough to produce some results. The star, still obviously in excruciat- ing agony, was rushed to St Philomena's hospital for an X-ray and admittance. But even after the X-rays, an air of optimism prevailed. A senior surgeon examined the star and stated that: "There is no cause for alarm". The X-rays failed to show any serious injury but this could be because the patient was not X-rayed properly. In an erect posture the physical examination revealed a

)i tender spot in the area where the star had come in contact with the table but little else.

Medical experts at the hospital, how- ever, are convinced that Bachchan should have been given a more thorough examin- ation, and subsequent facts seem to support their view.

July 26: On Monday. with Bachchan showing no signs of improvement, though he was fully conscious, another X-ray was performed which again either failed to reveal any serious complications or was not exa- mined carefully enough. In fact, the X- ray shows gas trapped under the diaphragm

which could only have come from a ruptured intestine. A Bombay doctor later said: "In our profession we treat a patient from the day he comes to us and don't look back for causes or try to blame earlier treatment. But there is no denying that the X-ray taken the day after the accident shows signs of gas collected under the diaphragm, a sure sign of perforation or leakage." Some doctors however feel that any patient in agony from such an injury for more than six hours normally needs surgery or a test of abdo- minal contents to detect infection.

By now, Bachchan had developed what is referred to medically as "board-like rigidity" of the stomach and the injury area had distended. But still the medical bulletin issued by the hospital stated that the star was "improving". In fact, three days of untreated intestinal leakage had resulted in severe internal infection and peritonitis, the inflammation of the abdominal lining. The rupture of. the large intenstine, had spilt faecal contents, dangerously toxic, into the abdomen resulting in septicaemia. At the time, none of this was known and Dr Shah was in a quandary.

He felt instinctively that something was seriously wrong but did not know whether flying the star to Bombay would aggravate the injury. Nevertheless, he consulted Jaya and seats were booked on the Monday evening flight. By the evening, however, the patient's condition had deteriorated mark- edly and the seats were cancelled. Though it had been two days since the incident, the outside world, including the media, rema-

ined in the dark. On instructions from the star's family, the hospital had kept a tight- lipped silence on Bachchan's condition except for terse words of encouragement that turned out to be hopelessly false.

July 27: Things started moving on Tuesday when anxious messages from Rajiv Gandhi in the US arrived and Chief Minister Gundu Rao and senior state officials got into the act. Dr Shah took advantage of the sudden air of urgency and called in Dr H.S. Bhatt, one of the leading urologists in the country who had attended the late Jayapra- kash Narayan. Bhatt's diagnosis was brisk and decisive. Bachchan, he said, required an immediate operation. Even then, there was some agonising delay over the possibili- ty of flying in surgeons from Bombay. But by now Bachchan's condition was too ser- ious for the 12-hour delay that this would have entailed. He was running a high fever, vomitting repeatedly and by 2.30 that after- noon his heartbeat had run to 180 as against '

the normal 72. He had also slipped into a coma and appeared to be sinking. i

Frantically, the operation theatre was r readied and the star was wheeled in. Dir- 1 ecting the operation were Bhatt and Dr . Joseph Anthony, a general surgeon aided by Dr Jai Singh. Waiting anxiously in the ante-room of the operation theatre were Jaya, Amitabh's mother Teji, his brother Ajitabh and film producer Yash Johar. Eye- witness reports obtained by INDIA TODAY

indicate that the operating theatre resembled a railway station. Several junior doctors and nurses hovered around the table as

Mrs Gandhi and Sonia arrive at Breach Candy tovisit theailingactor Rajiv Gandhi in the hospital foyer

-

INDIA TODAY, AUGUST 3 1 , 1982 63 1 I

3CIAL R E P O R T

vicarious spectarors-a critical lapse of dis- cipline considering the seriousness of the star's condition and the negative effect it could have on the actual operation.

Heavy Infection: One eyewitness states that when the incision into Bachchan's abd- omen was made, "pus burst out like a fountain". The team of surgeons discovered a hole in the small intestine where it joined up with the large intestine. The pus was cleaned up and the hole stitched and a tube was inserted in the abdomen to allow the excess pus to seep out. Some doctors, how- ever, feel that one drain was not enough and at least three should have been inserted to reduce the chances of infection. The opera- tion took a total of three hours and before it ended at 7 p.m.. three specialists from Bombay had flown in to ob- serve the final stages. They were Dr M.K. Gandhi, chief of car- diology. Suri Hospital. Dr Sharad Shah, a gastro- entero- logist, and Dr Shirish Bhansali. an abdominal surgeon.

By now. the word had sp- read and pools of anxious fans had gathered outside the hos- pital in spite of the pounding rain. The crucial vigl had be- gun. The first 24 hours at the most vital hours after any major operation and it was now a question of waiting and hope and prayer. Manmohan Desai had been visiting the Raja Rajeshwari temple in Bangalore every day, praying for the star's life and giving daily offerings at

called him 'Amitji'. Only the family could manage him, nobody else."

July 29: By Thursday night, with Bac- hchan's condition getting worse-doctors were now concerned about his kidneys-a decision was taken to fly the star to Bombay though the proposed shift was kept a strict secret.

July 30: By Friday morning, Bach- chan's condition had improved althbugh he had developed slight jaundice. It was decided to fly him out on the evening Airbus flight rather than a chartered flight in which the ride would have been bumpy. Pressed to explain the reason for the decision one surgeon who attended on him said that Bachchan's platelet count was low. Platelets are responsible for the coagulation of blood

experts almost unanimously feel that if Ba- chchan had been operated on the first two days after he was admitted, he would have been back on the ses of Coolie in a six week's time. However, value judgments are easy to make in hindsight and the team of doctors at St Philomena's insist that every possible thing was done to conform to medical stan- dards.

August 2: Nonetheless, Bachchan had to undergo a second major operation soon after he arrived at Breach Candy for a "burst abdomen" when stitches administered in Bangalore gave way.

Bachchan's second operation in Bom- bay turned into an eight-hour battle for life and at the end of it. he was still very much on the critical list.

By last week, Bachchan's glassed-off booth in the inten- sive care unit on the second floor of Breach Candy Hospital was a maze of machinery and intricate life-support systems. Tubes leading to his abdomen fed antibiotics directly onto the site of the infection while others were required to flush it out twice daily. A tracheal tube had been inserted in his throat to facilitate breathing since the star's asthmatic tendency puts an additional strain on his lu- ngs. A respirator strapped to his chest ensured a regular air su- pply and a string of monitors wired to other parts of his body kept constant check on unfore- seen complications developing. - -

the temile. Amitabh relaxing on the sets of Coolie: fighting spirit But though the mood was -., July 28: By midnight sombre. it was hardly one of .

Bachchan was given a 50 per cent chance of' and not enough platelets were available in defeat. Doctors felt that he had crossed the survival by the doctors but next morning Bangalore. neither was the facility for sepa- hump and the worst was over. ushered in further complications. His lungs ration of these plate-like cells which requires Improvement: Three days after the had deteriorated and pneumonia was .sus- a centrifuge. Bombay was the logical choice operation, Bachchan was able to sit up for pected. Further, the star was becoming in- but the Bombay airbus flight was three the first time for physiotherapic massages

/ creasingly delirious. The doctors went into a hours late and by the time three rows of listening to light jazz on a Walkman and I huddle regarding the advisability of exam- seats had been removed to accommodate writing notes to family members. By the time

ining his chest through a bronchoscope, a the mini intens~ve care unit, it was well Mrs Gandhi flew into Bombay to visit the major decision at that stage of Bachchan's . past midnight. star on August 8, he was being fed small struggle for survival. The decision was put July 31: In typical film fashion, Ba- doses of liquids-a sign that his intestines ofitill later but blood samples were taken for: chchan's removal from the hospital was had resumed working. Doctors, however, blood-gas tests (to determine the blood ac-' conducted like a top secret operation. While insist that it will be at least another fortnight cidity, oxygen and carbon di-oxide tension in the phalanx of reporters and photographers before he can be declared out of danger. the blood). The tests 'revealed that waited in ambush at the front door, Ba- "It is only his will-power that has pulled Bachchan's life still hung by a very slender chchan's stretcher-borne figure was spirited him through," said Yash Johar, who had thread. He was immediately put onto nebu- out through the rear door and into a waiting rushed to Bangalore with spare doses of lised oxygen (with a water vapour content) to ambulance. A police escort accompanied the platelet-rich plasma and had stayed with the keep the lung secretions from hardening, cavalcade to the airport and, at 12.40 family through their most anxious moments. Bachchan, in a state of delirium, had bouts Bachchan took off for Bombay and the next "If it had been anybody else, he would have '

' of violence. trying to snatch at tubes con- act inbthe life and death drama. succumbed," added Ramesh Sippy. "You nected to him and medical paraphernalia Yet, even as the drama shifted to Bom- don't know what a fighter Amitabh is. He lying around him. "He was controlled only bay, it left behind some vital and nagging just never gives up." by his brother and Jaya," said a source. "His questions, foremost among them being the -DILIP BOBB with C H A N D E R UDAY SINGH in mother Teji would call him 'Raja' while Jaya initial medical care given to the star. Medical Bombay and G I T A A B R A H A M in Bangalore