Medicine on the Midway - Fall 2009

Rana’s brother Deepak requested to walk faster and faster—and then leave from his university in India to run. With Hendricks running and flew over to keep vigil in his and sometimes walking alongside older brother’s room. Deepak could him every step of the way, Rana speak no English. Rana could not completed a half marathon in the speak at all because he was in a coma summer heat of Indianapolis in and remained unconscious for four 2008. He managed to run 13.1 miles, months. Ronald McDonald House, even though his grafted skin had set up to provide free lodging to no sweat glands. He did this a week parents of children who were ill, graafter a surgery that left eight-inch ciously offered Deepak a place to stay. incisions on both his shoulders. He There is an old burn unit yarn that returned to a nursing home that he around Christmas patients act up. increasingly was outgrowing, and And although Rana was Hindu, at was discharged to live on his own. the winter solstice, he had his darkRana is now working on his MBA est days. After five months of keeping from the Kelley School of Business at mostly clear of infections, he became Indiana University in Indianapolis. septic as bacteria moved into his In his most recent accounting bloodstream. The bacteria seemed to course, he got the top grade in his resist everything, and Rana came even class. closer to dying than he had been the In March, Steven Allen was found night of the fire. For a few tense days guilty of three counts of murder it looked like all the months of work and two counts of arson. On June had been for nothing. But, again, he 25, 2009, Rana and Hendricks went made a hair’s breadth escape. Some to Allen’s court sentencing. Before drugs finally kicked in, bacteria was he handed down his sentence, killed and his blood became clean.

Lake County Superior Court Judge That was the turning point. From Rana in his apartment in Indianapolis. Photo by Dan Dry Clarence Murray said that Rana was December onward, it was clear to the an inspiration and a “testament to medical team he was going to live. the ability of the human spirit to In 2006, Rana got better, stronger. He opened his eyes, he persevere in the face of great adversity.” Then he pronounced started to move. He made what physicians call in their restrained Allen’s sentence: 220 years—60 years each for the murder of language “a remarkable recovery.”

Allen’s wife, daughter and Singhal, plus 40 years for the aggraWith 95 percent of his skin grown back, he was transferred vated arson that left Rana so severely injured. not to India—there would be no hospital to take him there— Lake County Deputy Prosecutor John Burke, who handled but to the acute rehabilitation program at Wishard Memorial the Allen case and has gotten to know Rana over the past few Hospital in Indianapolis. There, he met Shannon Hendricks, years, called him “a great kid” and in an ironic way, a lucky one. an occupational therapist, who could see that under his scars “God has put some wonderful people in Rana’s path up there at was a man who wanted to be rehabilitated. Eventually, Rana was the University of Chicago Medical Center,” Burke said. discharged to a nursing home where he lived day by day, sharing Allen is appealing his conviction. In April, Judge Murray rooms with people who were dying or suffering from demenapproved Allen’s request to marry the girlfriend whose Florida tia. Under the influence of daily morphine to control pain, he trip set the stage for the tragedy. The marriage has since learned again how to stand and walk. After a year, he was able to taken place. start bringing a spoon to his mouth.

Rana has decided to remain in America. He is currently here At the time of the fire, Rana was one course shy of completunder a U visa, which grants temporary legal status and work ing a degree in computer engineering at Purdue University. The eligibility to victims of crimes. Eventually, he would like to last requirement was waived, and Rana was able to put on a obtain a green card, which would make him a permanent legal gown, stand up, walk, and receive his engineering degree. His resident. He has stated, “I came to America to have a better edumom flew in for his graduation. cation and a better life so I could provide for my family.” With Rana suffered a fourth-degree burn to his heel, down to his the surgeries behind him, Rana can at last begin reconstructing, tendons and bones, and had several toes amputated on his left not the better life he had imagined, but the best life he can have. foot. These were his only amputations: Gottlieb and his medical team had spared every other digit. Hendricks, who had seen many tough scrapes, but nothing as tough as this, coached him Fall 2009 19