Indian Soldier Rescued After Siachen Avalanche Dies

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/world/asia/indian-soldier-found-alive-after-avalanche-dies.html

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NEW DELHI — An Indian infantryman whose unlikely survival in an avalanche touched off celebrations across the country died Thursday morning at a military hospital in New Delhi.

The soldier, Hanamanthappa Koppad, was buried for five days under 35 feet of ice on the treacherous Siachen Glacier, where Indian and Pakistani troops face one another from camps at elevations approaching 20,000 feet. Nine other soldiers were killed in the same avalanche on Feb. 3.

In retrospect, it appears that Mr. Koppad’s chances of survival were close to nil. He was in critical condition from the moment he was retrieved from the ice, with multiple organ failure, pneumonia in both lungs and catastrophic brain damage, his doctors said in a news conference.

But while he was still technically alive, military doctors put him on a ventilator and administered the maximum permissible doses of antibiotics and other medication. News channels eagerly trumpeted each new health bulletin.

Indian military officials reserve special praise for soldiers willing to serve a three-month rotation on the glacier under life-threatening weather conditions. Mr. Koppad received a bedside visit from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and camera crews followed his shaken family members.

A cease-fire with Pakistan has been in place since 2003, but soldiers live in constant danger of frostbite, oxygen deprivation, hidden crevasses and avalanches. Mr. Koppad and the other soldiers had been posted at an altitude of 19,600 feet, in a spot where nighttime temperatures drop to around 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

Shortly after Mr. Koppad was declared dead, Mr. Modi wrote on Twitter: “The soldier in you remains immortal. Proud that martyrs like you served India.”