Big B Creates Big Scare ; As Bollywood's Busiest Actor Undergoes a Complicated Surgery of the Small Intestine, the Film Industry, with Rs 150 Crore Riding On Him, Holds Its Breath, Much As It Did in 1982

Summary

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It was like memories of another day. Lilavati Hospital in suburban Mumbai resembled a closely guarded fortress last week as the media kept a vigil on the nation's tallest superstar. As celebrity guests streamed in to visit Amitabh Bachchan, family and friends remained tightlipped about his ailment-which began as a stomach pain in Delhi and developed into a condition serious enough to merit a five-and-a-half-hour-long surgery of the small intestine.

For those who had lived through the public frenzy of 1982, when Bachchan battled death after an injury on the sets of Manmohan Desai's Coolie, it was surreal. Then, three days of untreated intestinal leakage had resulted in severe internal infection and caused neuromuscular dysfunction which Bachchan still lives with. This time, it all began when Bachchan was taken ill over the weekend in Lucknow at a function to commemorate his father's birth anniversary. Rushed to Delhi by air, he was then flown to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital. Over the next few days, TV crews would be stationed there permanently, giving hourly updates to channels with medical bulletins that kept changing the nature of the ailment. Initially believed to be colitis, Bachchan's condition appeared to be diverticulitis, where weakness in the wall of the small intestine results in the formation of numerous small pouches, which can get inflamed or infected. During investigation, it was found that one of these pouches had been perforated. According to Dr Avinash Supe, professor and head of gastro-intestinal surgery at KEM Hospital in Mumbai, it is a "major surgery and he should take at least two- three weeks of rest".

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Big B Creates Big Scare ; As Bollywood's Busiest Actor Undergoes a Complicated Surgery of the Small Intestine, the Film Industry, with Rs 150 Crore Riding On Him, Holds Its Breath, Much As It Did in 1982

As priests from Mahakaleshwar temple, Ujjain, and Siddhivinayak temple, Mumbai, offered pujas for him, the comment was echoed by all his friends con...

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