Skin graft for injured IAF officer

Kumaran P | NT

Bengaluru: The skin bank of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, located in the Victoria Hospital complex, has sent skin grafts to Air Force Command hospital in Bengaluru, where Group Captain Varun Singh is undergoing treatment for serious burn injuries. He is the lone survivor in the chopper crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others at Conoor in Tamil Nadu on December 8. Singh was brought to Bengaluru hospital for further treatment from Wellington. He had suffered severe burns and a team of medical experts here are treating him.

A senior doctor from Bangalore Medical College told News Trail, “Yes, we have given the skin to the Command Hospital for treatment of the Group Captain. We cannot share any more information regarding this as this is of national importance and pertaining to the Defence Ministry.”

Dr Gunasekar Vuppalapati, Senior Plastic Surgeon, GVG Invivo Hospital, said, “When I first heard about the shifting of Group Captain Singh from Wellington to Bengaluru, I called the skin bank to check on the availability, just in case the Command Hospital authorities place a request.”

“We have limited availability of fully processed skin for use on burn patients and whatever we had was made available to Command Hospital. However, we do have some more skin in the bank which is in the final stages of the process, within a week from now. We can also fetch it from skin banks in Mumbai or Chennai. There has been a decline in skin donations after the Covid pandemic,” Dr Vuppalapati said.