Arunkumar M. Nair has no recollection of what he has gone through for the past six months.

When the 38-year-old from Kerala who works as an OT technician in the UAE regained consciousness and was finally taken out of the intensive care unit after five months, he had survived a deadly bout of Covid, breathed through an artificial lung for 118 days, suffered cardiac arrest and undergone multiple life-saving procedures.

And Nair has lived to tell his tale.

Nair contracted Covid-19 in mid-July 2021 while working with the Covid-19 task force at L.L.H. Hospital, Abu Dhabi. He has been an OT technician at the hospital since 2013.

After testing positive, Nair had moved to a quarantine facility but his condition worsened within a few days. Unable to breathe, he was shifted to hospital and a thorough check-up revealed that his lungs had suffered severe damage.

On July 31, doctors put him on Ecmo (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) support. Ecmo technology is a treatment that uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream.

He came out of Ecmo support after 118 days.

He battled multiple complexities that threatened to snuff out his life, including cardiac arrest. He also underwent several procedures such as tracheostomy and bronchoscopy.

Nair was shifted to a general room of the hospital less than a month ago. “I do not remember anything. I know I have somehow escaped from the jaws of death,” he said. “It is because of the strength of the prayers of my family, friends and hundreds of others that I am alive today.”

Nair had not informed his family back in Kerala about his illness, telling them that he would not be able to make any calls because of a special arrangement in duty.

“We did not suspect anything wrong as he was part of the Covid-19 task force. But when we received a call from the hospital, we could not believe it,” said his wife, Jenny George, also a healthcare worker.

She secured a visa and travelled to Abu Dhabi to be with her husband.

“The news came as a huge blow to Arun’s parents and me. We were broken and prayed for his good health and speedy recovery,” Jenny said, adding that he had planned to come home for housewarming in August.

Dr Tarig Ali Mohamed Elhassan, department head of cardiac surgery at Burjeel Hospital who treated Nair from the beginning, said his condition was critical from day one.

“His lungs had failed and it was beyond repair. He was breathing only with the support of an Ecmo machine. This continued for about 118 days. In a normal case, recovery would have been impossible. This is why Arun’s recovery is a miracle to all of us,” Tarig said.

Nair will fly back to India with his family soon to visit his parents and continue his physiotherapy there. He is confident of rejoining duty next month.

In honour of his service to the UAE and his fighting spirit, V.P.S. Healthcare, a multinational group, has given a financial aid of Rs 50 lakh to Nair.

Nair’s Emirati colleagues handed him the financial assistance at an event organised at Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi on Thursday to celebrate his recovery, according to a statement by the hospital.

The healthcare group will offer a job to his wife and will take up the expenses of the education of his child.