In the last few months of 2003, newspapers in India had been running full-page advertisements from an oil company. The advertisements described the life story and achievements of individuals who succeeded against all odds and inspired others. One life story struck me as particularly poignant. It is the story of a brave captain in the Indian Army. Barely a year and a half out of the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun, the young captain and his team is asked to defend the country against terrorists in the inhospitable terrain of Kargil in the Himalayas.
There the team of brave soldiers crawls on their bellies while their backs are torn by barbed wire and they face withering gunfire and grenades. As they reach the enemy, the captain’s colleague is hurt and falls in a trench near the enemy facing sure death. The captain makes a heroic decision, risks his life and leaps in after his wounded colleague. He is hit by enemy gunfire from all sides and has a bullet hole in his chest. No matter; he goes ahead and wipes out the enemy before laying down his life.
He manages to save his partner as well as the lives of his teammates but at the cost of his own life. His colleagues can only speak with awe about his heroic leap. A grateful nation can only offer him its highest award for bravery.
Every time I read that advertisement I am saddened at the loss of the young life but am also struck by one remarkable fact. Under extreme stress, the soldiers did not feel the pain while the barbed wire tore their backs. More particularly, the captain continued to fire and attack the enemy even after sustaining gunshot wounds himself. We can only speculate what his thoughts must have been at that time but we can almost be positive that he did not feel the pain of the bullets at that time.
To give it the correct scientific name it is described as stress-induced analgesia. One of the first persons to record this phenomenon was an anesthesiologist Henry Beecher who examined soldiers during World War II. He found that for injuries of a similar severity, approximately 80 per cent of the civilians requested morphine, while only 30 per cent of the soldiers did.
The captains name was Vikram Batra and he was awarded the highest award for bravery—Param Veer Chakra—in recognition of his heroic fight.