Santosh Andhale for Mumbai Mirror

Mumbai, Oct 21: Parag Sawant, 27, who suffered damage to his brain in the 7/11 blast between Mira Road and Bhayander, still breathes, but that’s about it. Doctors at Hinduja Hospital, where he has been in the ICU on the eighth floor since the day after the blasts, describe his condition as ‘vegetative and critical’. In other words, he’s in coma.

Sawant underwent brain surgery at the hospital soon after he was admitted but his condition has not improved till date. His eyes move but he is unable to communicate and unaware of anything around him. Sadly, not even the fact that his wife, Priti, gave birth to a child only 12 days ago at the Ashirwad Hospital in Bhayander.

Parag, executive officer with Akruti Nirman, a developers’ group, and a resident of Ghoddev Naka at Bhayander, was returning home from his office in Andheri on July 11 when the bomb ripped apart his life and turned his family’s life upside down.

While his wife Priti and mother Madhuri are homemakers, his younger brother, Pratik, works in the oil rig at Bombay High and father Jayprakash is a welder at Mazagaon Dock.

Today, one member of his family is always by his side at the hospital and stays for five days before another takes over. His mother, Madhuri, has been at the hospital for the last five days. His wife would come to the hospital almost every day earlier but since she entered an advanced stage of pregnancy, she was advised not to come.

Parag’s mother said the family still hopes he would come out of coma. “We believe in God, and Parag himself is a devotee of Ganpati. My faith tells me he will be all right one day,” Madhuri Sawant said.

The entire family had been disturbed for the last 101 days, she said, adding that doctors at the hospital were taking good care of her son.

While the railways have borne all the hospital expenses so far in keeping with their compensation policy, Hinduja Hospital has provided a full-time nurse for Parag’s care.

Dr Basant Misra, consultant neurosurgeon at Hinduja Hospital said: “We operated on Parag two days after the blasts. Now his situation is critical and his state vegetative. We feed him through a pipe and have kept him under observation.”