Last Sunday (December 21, 2025) will forever remain like no other for Manoop. B, a young cardiothoracic surgeon at Kottayam Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Kerala. For it would be the day – night, actually – that he pulled a young accident victim from the brink of death, literally with his bare hands.
That adrenaline rush is something he can still re-live, says Dr. Manoop, as he narrates how he came to be the saviour of the Kollam native, Linu.
Dr. Manoop was on his way from Kochi to Kottayam when, at Udayamperoor, he saw two mangled two-wheelers on the road around 8.30 p.m. He stopped the car and got out to check what had happened.
“I saw three people lying on the ground, critically injured. Two of them, though they had serious injuries, were conscious. But the third person (Linu) who had his helmet on, was lying in a dark corner and was absolutely still,” says Dr. Manoop.
“It is very important in such accident emergencies that we stabilise the neck of the injured. I tried to remove his helmet but I needed an expert hand, when, like godsend, the doctor couple – Thomas Peter and his wife, Dideeya Thomas, who had also stopped on the way seeing the accident site – came in. With one of them stabilising the neck of the victim, I was able to remove his helmet,” he says.
