Bengal cricketer among six injured in car accident

KOLKATA - Avik Chowdhury, a Bengal cricketer, was among six people injured in a car accident here Sunday. Chowdhury was in critical condition and on ventilator support in a private hospital after sustaining multiple injuries, a doctor said.

Five others in the car that hit a road divider on the eastern metropolitan bypass were also admitted to the hospital with various degrees of injuries. Four of them are in the intensive cardiac care unit (ICCU), said one of the attending doctors.

Twenty-five-year-old Chowdhury, an all-rounder who made his debut for Bengal last year, has severe spinal and lung injuries, as also a hip fracture. “He is very critical and on ventilator support. He needs surgery but such a procedure is not possible now in view of his condition,” the doctor added.

Chowdhury’s lower limbs are paralysed. “He is conscious, but can only move his hands. We have put him under strong sedation,” the doctor said.

“We will monitor his condition for the next 48 hours. Only then can we think about the next course of treatment,” he added.

Three of the cricketer’s spinal bones have been dislocated. “He was haemorrhaging in his lungs. So we put him on the ventilator as his oxygen level was falling,” the doctor said.

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, Cricket Association of Bengal president Jagmohan Dalmiya, Chodhury’s teammates, and several noted former cricketers rushed to the hospital in South Kolkata where he has been admitted.