MUMBAI: Umesh Chauhan (34), shot as a bystander during the attack on Tiger Shroff, survived thanks to the bullet’s unpredictable trajectory, said doctors. Dr Harish Pathak, dean of KEM Hospital, where Chauhan was operated on, said the bullet’s extreme heat during firing would have sterilised it.Surgeons said it entered the lower left chest, below the heart, passed through the liver, grazed the lung and struck a right-side rib. The impact deflected it without fracturing the rib, slowing it before it lodged in the right posterolateral back muscle, near but not touching the spine.
How the bullet travelled
“He is a very lucky man. The bullet’s movement, how it turned, where it hit, all made a difference,” said Dr Uday Jadhav, head of cardiovascular & thoracic surgery (CVTS). “Its final position allowed extraction through just a 1.5-cm incision. A different trajectory could have required major surgery or struck the heart, proving fatal.”The operation involved teams from general surgery, CVTS, pulmonary medicine, hepatology, cardiology, radiology and anaesthesiology. Dr Pathak said a bullet’s diameter determines only the entry wound, not the full extent of damage. Chauhan’s liver has begun healing. The father of a five-year-old, who is expecting another child in a few months, is likely to be discharged in about a week with painkillers and antibiotics.
