Bengaluru: August 2 is a special day for doctors and nurses of St. Philomena’s Hospital, Bengaluru.

Thirty four years ago on that day, megastar Amitabh Bachchan regained consciousness in this hospital.

The Catholic hospital conducted emergency surgery following a severe abdominal injury the Bollywood star sustained during the filming of Coolie in Bengaluru then known as Bangalore, capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The actor, popularly known as Big B, was shooting at Bangalore University when due to a mistimed jump during a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar, he hit the corner of a table, instead of landing on it.

Bachchan describes August 2 as his second birthday. He once said that the accident had left him clinically dead for a few minutes.

The doctors and nurses who attended to the superstar at hospital, which is on Mother Teresa Road, have all grown old, and some have even passed away.

Dr Shankar Prasad, medical director at the hospital, says it was hard to believe that three decades ago Bachchan was brought to their hospital and their seniors conducted a successful emergency surgery on him.

“We are proud that a Bengaluru hospital conducted a life-saving surgery on the legend,” he told The Times of India.

Prasad said Bachchan was rushed to the hospital with a blunt injury in his abdomen. “There was a rupture in his intestine and intestinal fluid had spilled out.”

Bachchan was in the hospital for three days and was under the care of our nurses and doctors. “Today, all of them have retired and some have even passed away,” the director said.

Joseph Anthony, one of the doctors who operated upon the superstar back in 1982, is 83 now and bedridden. HS Bhat, another doctor in the team, passed away a couple of years ago.

“Besides doctors from St. Philomena’s Hospital, the team had another physician who was sent from Delhi by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He too was present in the operation theatre of this hospital on that day,” said Prasad.

Post surgery, Bachchan was flown to Mumbai where his treatment continued at Breach Candy Hospital. “When Amitabh was brought to our hospital, I was a nursing trainee. I took care of the legend for the few days he was there,” said Julie, 60, who has been bedridden for the last 10 years due to poor health.