Written By: Swapna C | Updated : February 10, 2016 4:18 PM IST
Shrinivas Balasubramanian before and after the accident and working out at the gym.
"Oh you are like Ironman," exclaimed one of the girls in my team as Shrinivas Balasubramanian talked about setting off metal detectors at the airport. When you look at the strapping hulk of a man and are thinking of his super human achievement, it is difficult to believe that this is the same guy who had a head-on collision with a truck in April 2013. An accident that left 31 year old Shrinivas battered and bruised. He was riding a Harley Davidson bike with his biking friends and the truck was on the wrong side of the road.
Anybody else who spent 9 months in hospital and shrunk to 55 kg from 110 kg and had enough surgeries for a lifetime would have been glad to walk out alive. Not Shrinivas. This institutional broker not only got back on his bike, but also hit the gym and in a couple of years set a power lifting record which is nothing short of a miracle! I spoke to Shrinivas and the orthopaedic surgeon Dr Ashish Phadnis, Jupiter Hospital, Thane, who feels, "It was his positive attitude, the relentless effort and unflinching support from his parents that Shrinivas was able to tide over these difficulties!" Here's the incredible story of the man who is poised to go further in his quest to prove that even broken bones and brain damage can't keep you down if you persevere!
The big question Will he survive?
After colliding with an oncoming truck at a very high speed on the highway, an unconscious Shrinivas was immediately taken to Jupiter hospital. He was immediately intubated and put on a ventilator. Unfortunately he had suffered a massive damage to two areas of his brain the frontal lobe (the area of the brain in front which is responsible for all important activity of cognition, behaviour, emotions) and the thalamus, which is the relay or the junction of all the important nerves and tracks in the brain required for complex vital and co- ordinated activity.
He had a fractured jaw and also had lost a few teeth in the front row. To add to the problems, Shrinivas had a badly broken wrist (open fracture), the bones of the wrist had fractured, disrupted the tissues and had come out of the skin.
As an emergency measure, Shrinivas was taken to the operation theatre where his wrist wound was cleaned thoroughly and a few wires were inserted in his bones to hold it all together and the wrist was in a temporary fixture. After a few days when he was more stable, he underwent a long surgery to fix his wrist and the jaw, while he was still under coma. Even after seeing his son in this condition, his father was confident that his son would be riding again one day to visit the very doctors who helped him recover.
The team who put him together
A team comprising Dr Ashish Phadnis, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr Harshad Purandare, Neurosurgeon, Dr Venkateshwaran, Plastic surgeon and Dr Parag Lad, Hand surgeon was involved in his surgery that lasted almost six hours. There were plates and a few screws that were inserted in his wrist and the defect in the bone was supplemented by using an artificial bone graft. He was being cared for by a team of intensive care specialists, neurosurgeons, physician, neuro physician, plastic surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons at Jupiter Hospital.
The recovery
He had initially lost his memory and recognition, he had lost sensitivity to pain and had lost inhibition, he was aggressive in his behaviour and irritable due to the head injury.
Over a period of time his neurological condition improved, the plaster from his hand came out and he started to move his hand. In the interim he had lost about 55 kilos.Once discharged, he had a six month physiotherapy session that dealt with bare essentials from being able to sit to learning to use the right hand.
The gym fail
Having been a power lifter, which Shrinivas is quick to emphasise is not the same as body building, he was raring to hit the gym the moment he felt better. By December, on the basis of x-rays, the doctors gave a green signal with regards to weight training, which began in Feb 2014. Almost 10 months after the accident, Shrinivas went to the gym and started lifting weights. Unfortunately, the plates couldn't withstand the load as the bones were not strongly united and the plate in his wrist broke. The challenge in managing his problems was not the fracture itself, but the fact that he wished to lift a huge load, which any regular person would find difficult.
The wrist surgery (again!)
They had to do a second surgery where they redid the whole surgery by using some bone from his hip. About 6 months after this procedure, the bone healed and Shrinivas started training to lift weights again. Since the demands on the repaired wrist were huge and it had failed once already, the doctors didn't want it to fail again. In the end with a lot of effort from the doctors and the family and a huge amount of restraint from Shrinivas, he had a very strong wrist one that enabled him to achieve the power lifting goal that he had set for himself.
The second accident
A lack of any movement, thanks to these surgeries led to weight gain once again but he gained fat rather than muscle thanks to the lack of movement. But, everything seemed to be back in shape by November that year when he met with another accident. An Innova cab driver smashed his ankle while he was at a signal.
This time round, he spent three weeks at the hospital since the orthopaedic surgeons had to wait for until the swelling around the affected area subsided before they could operate. The impact was so severe that a swelling which would have typically subsided in a day or two took about 10 days to subside. He needed a walker, walking stick and crutches for about three months till he was able to walk freely without any support. The ankle has left him with some stiffness and he is working hard to get over it.
The record breaker
At this point, most people thought that there was no possibility of ever getting back. This perception, says Shrinivas, was a huge motivation to restart and get back to one of his passions with vigour!
Here's the account of the big moment in his own words
The national bench press record was 217.5 kg (Vikramjit Singh) and I attempted 220 kg (with a spotter, since the wrist could have given away at any point) successfully. It was heavy and dangerous, but the sheer will triumphed in this case and the record was broken. This is not a competition lift and the media was kept aside during the event since this was something that I wanted to achieve for myself.
Any bench press record around the world is usually recorded in competitions, which I cannot participate in (given the broken ankle). This record is only for personal satisfaction of getting back to fitness completely. In usual bench press records, the spotter at the back helps to unrack the bar and leaves the entire act of the negative (heading to touch the chest) and the lift on the bench press athlete. In my case, this cannot be done because the wrist metal and screws might snap again, if the weight is not managed precisely on the negative motion (heading down).
The two persons standing on either end of the barbell are strictly instructed to not touch the bar or weights unless they sense complete failure by the athlete or the standing spotter. In March 2014, the fact that the old bone graft wasn't merging with the rest of the hand was figured during a chest exercise (using Dumbbells). This leaves everyone even more concerned now about stepping in to help, just in case we'd see a repeat of the plates bending or screws breaking. Hence the spotter takes care, especially during the negative.
The man and his family
His doctor fondly recalls Shrinivas and his family as some of the most cheerful and lovely people that he has met. "His visit to the hospital is remembered by everyone, including the receptionists, ward boys, HCAs and technicians alike. The videos of his exploits bring an automatic smile, a sense of satisfaction on the faces of everyone from the casualty to the ICU and the reception in Jupiter Hospital," he adds.
TheHealthSite.com team wishes Shrinivas tremendous success in all his future fitness goals and hopes to witness him soar to new heights. Here's a video which captures Shrinivas, his friends, family and the 220 kg bench press record.
Please watch and share this miraculous story with everybody you care about.
