The Hindu : Front Page : Now help from abroad for Delhi bomb blast hero

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005

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Now help from abroad for Delhi bomb blast hero

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

"THE INDIAN FACE OF COURAGE": DTC bus driver Kuldeep Singh at AIIMS in Delhi. - PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY.

NEW DELHI: Not left fighting a lonely battle, Delhi serial bomb blasts hero Kuldeep Singh now has the international community pledging support to him.

Describing him as "the Indian face of courage", Yamanashi University in Japan and Nichi-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Chennai have joined hands with the Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here to perform a very complex limbal stem cell therapy on him.

It is probably the only window of hope for Kuldeep to help him attain a workable vision that would give him a chance to lead an independent life.

Grievously injured in the blast inside a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus that he was driving in Govindpuri here on October 29, Kuldeep's right eye sustained burn injures from exposure to the blast flame and turned opaque as he was hurling the bomb out of the bus, saving many lives in the process.

The eye has now been shut for healing.

"It is the left eye we are hoping to work on. We examined him on Monday, and in case healing does not begin soon, say in the next 15 days, he would be an ideal candidate for the new procedure as he has exhausted all other avenues of treatment.

The therapy is used for patients who cannot be helped through any other medical technology,'' said Samuel J. K. Abraham of Yamanashi University who was in Delhi on Monday to meet Kuldeep.

Dr. Abraham and his team at Yamanashi University and Nichi-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine first came to know of Kuldeep's condition after reading a report in the online edition of The Hindu that indicated he was scheduled for stem cell therapy at AIIMS. Dr. Abraham has now checked on Kuldeep's medical status and worked out a treatment plan for him along with the doctors at AIIMS.

"Kuldeep is the Indian face of courage and we appreciate what he has done. We want to do this technique on him also because this is an opportunity for us to inform those patients in need about the availability of such a technology,'' said Dr. Abraham. Dr. Raj Pal, treating this brave DTC driver at AIIMS, said: "We are expecting aid from the international community and talks are on to collect healthy corneal stem cells, multiply them, and put them back in his injured eye for regeneration. The culturing of the tissues will take a minimum of three weeks. The procedure will be done free of cost for Kuldeep.''

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