Doctor wanted to die, then wanted to live

This is the story of a young doctor who wanted to end his life in the most unusual manner. But a group of doctors in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital found an innovative method to restore his life.
The 32-year old doctor, failing to cope up with day to day pressures of life, thought of ending his life and chose an unusual method, little knowing that destiny had something else in store for him.
The doctor chose two cardiac drugs for definite cardiac arrest and one drug for certain brain damage.
Firstly, he ingested 100 tablets of a cardio vascular drug digoxin. Digoxin is used to control irregular heartbeats in patients, but when taken in large doses, can cause a complete standstill, leading to cardiac arrest.

Simultaneously, he injected himself with 1600 units of regular insulin to drop his blood sugar levels to dangerous levels which if unchecked leads to comatose state and severe brain damag.
He also consumed large quantities of a drug propranolol which reduces the symptoms of anxiety and low sugar levels in the blood, which can be a terrible sensation. Propranolol also slows down the heart and when taken with Digoxin makes it even more dangerous. As the effects of drugs started, the doctor had a sudden change of mind -- he wanted to live.

He informed his relatives and was immediately rushed to the casualty of SGRH within two hours of his ingesting the drugs late in the night of June 2013.

The doctors in the Department of Critical Care were perplexed by the unique mixture of drugs taken in large quantity.
"I had never seen in my practice of 25 years, this unique and deadly concoction as a method to commit suicide. The challenge for us was to find an antidote for drug Digoxin which was digoxin specific antibody fragments (Fab).
"But this is not readily available in India and moreover the cost of one vial is about USD 1600 i.E. About Rs 1,00,000 and we needed 15-20 vials (Total cost Rs. 15-20 Lac). Time was running out and patient's condition deteriorated," said Dr Sumit Ray, Vice Chairperson of Department of Critical Care, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.