Soumendu Rudra will begin his medical course at last. He is 24. There is nothing exceptional about it except everything that happened in his life in the past five years.

Rudra was a pursuing dentistry at a Bhubaneswar college when he fell in the toilet of his home in Burdwan after a bout of dizziness. He was 19.

In the next two days he started forgetting everything; he couldn’t recognise people around him and his parents rushed him to a hospital in Calcutta.

His skull had to be taken apart and doctors managed to keep him alive after performing a craniectomy to relieve the pressure that had built inside his brain. He was left paralysed on one side.

And that is how he has lived for all these years. But he was determined to become a doctor. So three years ago he took the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test but failed. This year, he cracked the exam in the quota for the physically challenged, securing a rank of 789.

On Monday, he appeared before a medical board at the SSKM Hospital that would decide on the degree of his physical disability. He cleared it as the last hurdle before joining the MBBS course when seats are allotted and classes begin.

“Since childhood I have been an ailing kid, visiting doctors often. But I always dreamt of being a doctor and I knew I would be one some day,” he told Metro. “For the past few years as doctors kept helping me, I made up my mind that I want to be like them… people who would be able to change the lives of others and bring back smiles.”

From lying on a hospital bed and realising he could no longer be a dentist to clearing the NEET this year Rudra’s journey has been battling challenges one after another.

Back home from hospital after a month’s stay following his brain operation, Rudra’s bone density and bone mass had been reduced to an all-time low.

Early in 2016, a few months after he had recovered from secondary infections following his brain surgery, he fractured his femur. It left him fixed to the bed for months. A second round of struggle began with doctors and physiotherapists trying to recover his leg and his limp left side.

“In 2016, around the time of Kali Puja, a senior doctor from SSKM, who was visiting our para to meet his relatives, turned up at our place. He recommended me to get in touch with the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the hospital,” he said.

The journey to SSKM from Burdwan seemed impossible for the next few months. His father Kishon, a retired veterinary surgeon, kept trying various doctors in the locality as his mother kept inspiring him.

In early 2017, when Rudra could barely manage to sit, his parents met doctors at SSKM.

The process of rehabilitation began.

“He could hardly move his left arm or leg when he first came to us,” said Rajesh Pramanik, who headed the team of doctors at the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at SSKM.

“Over the next few years, we just kept on trying relentlessly without losing our patience. He gradually started responding. His left arm started moving and then the leg. On Monday, as he stood with a smile on his face, it was a full circle for all of us.”

Rudra is hopeful he will secure a seat at the Burdwan Medical College, close to his home. Till then he is just counting his blessings and best wishes from everyone who stood by him in his battle.

“Now that I won’t be a dentist I want to be a surgeon. I hope to gain enough strength to perform,” he said.