Bittu: An Inspiring Story of a Double Amputee's Fight for Survival After Electrocution

How a Little Oversight Cost Bittu Both His Arms - but Brought an Entire Community Together

By
Debkumar Bhadra

There are accidents, and then there are accidents that rewrite a life entirely. For Gaurab Kumar Paul — fondly known in our neighbourhood as Bittu — a single unwary moment on the morning of June 21, 2018, did exactly that. What began as a gesture of goodwill to help a friend ended with severe high-tension electrocution injuries that ultimately result in the amputation of both his arms.

I have watched Bittu play as a toddler and grow to adulthood in my small neighbourhood in South Andaman. Writing this is not easy. But his story deserves to be told — not just as a personal account of tragedy and resilience, but as a larger reflection on how our healthcare system, administrative machinery, and community respond when one of our own falls.

The Accident That Changed Everything

It was a Thursday morning when Bittu went to lend a helping hand to a village mate wrapping up the previous night's wedding reception. The task was straightforward - removing an array of alternating bamboo and galvanised iron (GI) pipe poles that had been planted along the roadside to hold decorative light fittings along the pathway to the marriage venue.

When Bittu arrived at the scene, work was already underway. Several poles had been removed and his friends were making progress on the remaining ones. He joined in, pulling out one himself. At that moment, the friend working beside him received a phone call and stepped away, leaving a GI pipe half-pulled from its hole. Bittu grabbed it with both his hands and hauled it free.

A loud cracking noise split the air, followed by sparks flying from the live High Tension (HT) electric power lines running directly overhead. The GI pipe in Bittu's hands had made contact with the live overhead line. Power supply went off almost immediately — apparently due to the resulting short circuit — but not before Bittu had already fallen onto the road, with electric shock-induced burn injuries across his palms, hands, and thighs.

Villagers rushed him to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Bambooflat, from where he was referred to GB Pant Hospital, Port Blair the same day.

The Medical Journey Begins: Nine Days at GB Pant Hospital

After receiving treatment in the burns ward at GB Pant Hospital for just over a week, Bittu was referred to Government Stanley Medical College in Chennai for specialised care. Upon reaching the facility, it became clear that receiving treatment at a government facility would be a prolonged process. The severity of his injuries, the threat of advancing gangrene, and intense pain drove his parents to shift him to Apollo Hospital Chennai — where assessment found his right to be unviable and amputated below the elbow.

A Double Amputation: Eighteen Days After the Mishap

In a bid to save the left arm, Bittu's family made the difficult decision to shift him to Mallige Hospital in Bangalore. Despite best efforts, the left arm too was found to be unviable and had to be amputated below the elbow. At twenty-nine years of age, Gaurab Kumar Paul had become a bilateral amputee.

The trauma that followed was as severe as the physical injuries. The once hale and healthy young man retreated entirely into himself. On returning to the islands, Bittu refused to go out of home or face anyone in the village. He took refuge at his maternal uncle's house, away from familiar eyes.

A Family in Crisis: Financial Ruin and Administrative Rejection

Born on November 16, 1989 to Mrs Renuka Paul, an Anganwadi worker and Mr Gopi Nath Paul, a retrenched employee of the erstwhile M/S Andaman Timber Industries (ATI) and currently a daily wage earner. Gaurab is the couple's younger child. With modest means and treatment cost exceeding ₹10 lakhs, the family found itself caught under immense financial as well as emotional strain.

Bittu's parents approached the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) requesting reimbursement of the treatment expenses. Their application was rejected on the ground that the patient had been shifted to a different hospital from the one originally referred to — a decision taken out of emergent medical necessity, not otherwise. But the family’s explanation made little impact on the administration’s rigid position. Some relief eventually came as ex-gratia payment of ₹1 lakh from the Lt.Governor's relief fund.

With meagre income, debts running into several lakhs borrowed from relatives, friends, neighbours and villagers, the family had no one left to turn to. As Renuka Paul described it through tears: "Whatever little savings we had including financial help and borrowings from relatives and villagers, every penny has been spent on his treatment."

Bittu Speaks: Pain, Gratitude and Optimism

When I made a courtesy call to check on Bittu last week, I was shocked to learn that financial constraints were preventing him from making the journey to Chennai to get prosthetic hands fitted. What struck me more than the hardship was how composed he has become in the years since.

He recalls how the events unfoled that fateful morning. He says, he clearly remember those initial moments. He was seeing everything but could not speak a single word. He reflects that had the fuse at the nearby supply transformer not blown off in time, the outcome would have been far graver. The initial days, he says, were extremely painful. But with time, not only did he return to his home in the village, he also learned to cope with his disability.

He speaks with genuine warmth about the support he received from the then Member of Parliament Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, from doctors at GB Pant Hospital, from Shri Vishal Jolly, Miss VK Mariam Bibi, Shri P L Modi of M/S Manish Enterprises, Mr Swaraj, the Humane Touch NGO, relatives, and countless unknown donors and friends in the village. He says he is indebted to each and every one who stood by him.

He also records his gratitude to Shri Chetan B Sanghi, Chief Secretary of the A&N Administration, for permitting him the assistance of a scribe to appear for Part-II of the MTS recruitment examination. Though his name did not feature in the final list of successful candidates, he remains optimistic. He urges the A&N Administration — specifically the Director of RD/PRI — that one room in the under-construction GP Shore Point Shopping Complex near the Bambooflat jetty parking lot be allotted to him on priority, so that he may earn a livelihood and live without being dependent on others.

Administrative Referrals That Led Nowhere

Under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Scheme for Health Insurance (ANISHI), Bittu was referred to MIOT Hospital in Chennai for myoelectric hand prosthesis on a cashless basis. He duly presented himself at the hospital, where measurements for the prosthetic hands were taken. He was then advised to return to the islands and await a call from the hospital.

The call never came. When he followed up with DHS officials, he learned the referral had been cancelled — due to administrative reasons.

Then a second referral was issued to AMRI Hospital in Kolkata under an MoU between AMRI Hospital and DHS. A reluctant but hopeful Bittu made the journey to Kolkata. This referral too failed to materialise — once again, due to administrative reasons.

A third referral followed in February 2020, this time to Dr Kamakshi Memorial Hospital in Chennai. After hand measurements were taken, Bittu was sent back and asked to return once the prosthetics arrived. In early March, the hospital called him back. He went. But the prosthetics had been delayed due to disruptions in flight operations caused by the emerging COVID-19 pandemic.

Back in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, prohibitory orders and restrictions were being imposed. Word came that domestic flight operations between the mainland and the islands were to be suspended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Bittu found himself facing the prospect of being stranded away from home at mainland.

With a heavy heart, he boarded one of the last flights back to the islands before the flight suspension took effect. Since then, he had been holding on to a faint hope that someday he would be able to gather the resources to travel again to Chennai and receive the prosthetics that had eluded him through three referrals across three hospitals over two years.

How a Village Came Together Once Again

When I went to see Bittu, I realised that the prosthetics were only part of the problem. The house he was living in was unfinished. There was no shower in the bathroom. The toilet was an Indian type. The water pump that was supposed to supply water to the overhead tank was lying on the floor, uninstalled. The overhead tank itself sat idle on the first-floor slab, unconnected. When the accident happened in 2018, the family had been in the middle of constructing their home. Everything — including the construction — was abandoned halfway as they rushed from hospital to hospital trying to save Bittu's arms.

One can very well understand what it takes for a double amputee to cope with such challenges compounded by acute poverty. More than the accident itself, it was everyday life that had become Bittu's most relentless adversary.

When I shared what I had seen with the members of SPARSHA, an yet to registered NGO in its formation phase, the response was immediate. Action began on two fronts simultaneously.

On the first front, we set about making Bittu's daily life as autonomous as possible. We contributed to convert the Indian-style toilet to a western-type commode with hands-free jet operation. The water pump was installed, the overhead tank was connected, and proper plumbing lines were run through to the bathroom. A shower was fixed. And all the water faucets throughout the house were replaced with lever-type faucets — so that Bittu could operate them independently, without needing to ask anyone for help.

On the second front, we were simultaneously trying to fix a date with the referral hospital in Chennai for the fitting of the prosthetic hands. This was no small task. It was COVID time. Appointments were hard to come by. Hospitals were overwhelmed, travel was restricted.

Eventually, the coordinator at the hospital confirmed the prosthetics were ready and an appointment was fixed. Call it a stroke of luck or sheer coincidence that the date fixed by the hospital fell on Bittu's own birthday: November 16.

With the intention of making Bittu's 31st birthday a truly special one, the date was accepted. Air tickets were arranged. Financial assistance was pooled together to cover travel and incidental expenses for Bittu and one attendant. Both were given a warm send-off by the village.

We only tried to resolve some of the issues. The real difference, as always, came from within Bittu himself.

At the time of writing this article, Bittu is undergoing training with his myoelectric prosthetic hands at the referral hospital in Chennai. The video clip embedded below offers a small glimpse of his training session. Back in the islands, his family and friends are eagerly awaiting his return — ready to give Bittu the welcome home he so richly deserves.

A Reflection: What Bittu's Story Tells Us

Bittu's journey is not just a personal story of hardship and recovery. It raises uncomfortable questions about how accident victims from economically weaker sections navigate healthcare and administrative system that often seems calibrated against them. Referrals were made, only to be cancelled on administrative grounds. Months turned into years of waiting, all while Bittu lived without both his arms, in debt, in a remote island territory.

At the same time, his story speaks of something remarkable. The capacity of ordinary people to step in when institutions fall short. Villagers, neighbours, unknown donors, NGOs, and individual officers who chose to go beyond their brief to create a support system that administration could not provide.

There is also a lesson here on electrical safety awareness. A high-tension wire running low over public places, within reach of people handling metal poles, is not just an unavoidable hazard. It is the failure of basic electrical safety norms. HT electrocution accidents are far more common in India than they should be, often arising from exactly this kind of inadvertent contact with overhead power lines during routine outdoor work.

Bittu's resilience is extraordinary. But it is worth asking why such resilience had to be called upon in the first place and what we, as a society, owe to those who survive what should never have happened to them.

Appeal: If you find this article valuable, consider sharing it to raise awareness about the challenges faced by electrocution survivors and double amputees seeking rehabilitation support.

Suggested Reading from my blog:

👉 Sudipto Ghosh: Local boy brings laurel for A&N Islands

👉 K. P. Mammuu: The Master Athlete from Andaman Who Broke National Records
👉 KRK: A budding Independent Artist from A&N Islands
👉 M Nageshwar Rao: The Man Who Walked The Talk