Doctor’s Day Special – 5 minutes that changed everything: Dr. (Col) Rajeev Sood, Manipal Hospital

The five minutes that changed my career forever were not spent inside the operating theatre.

They began with a phone call informing me that a bus had plunged into a gorge and 105 casualties were being evacuated to the 40-bed Armed Forces hospital where I was serving in a remote, classified location. We had just 30 minutes to prepare.

I was 29 years old. Six victims had already died, and it quickly became clear that 45 of the remaining 99 would need emergency surgery.

There was no option of transferring patients or calling for reinforcements. In those first five minutes, I stopped thinking about what we didn’t have and focused only on what we could do: triage, organise the team, prepare the theatres, and save as many lives as possible.

My anesthesiologist, nurses, theatre staff, and support teams worked tirelessly beside me for the next three days. That experience redefined my purpose as a doctor. It taught me that courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to stay clear-headed when others are depending on you.

My message to every young doctor is simple: in a crisis, don’t let the scale overwhelm you. Focus on the next patient, trust your training, rely on your team, and take one decision at a time. Take every challenge as an opportunity to discover the best version of yourself.