Salim Khan discharged from Lilavati Hospital after over a month — A strong recovery at 90
Bollywood legendary screenwriter Salim Khan has been discharged from Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai. That is the news everyone in Bollywood and beyond was waiting for. The 90 year old screenwriter - the man behind Sholay, Deewar, Don and so many others - spent nearly a month in hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage in February. Tuesday March 17 is when he finally got to leave.How it All StartedOn February 17, early morning, Salim Khan was brought into the emergency department of Lilavati Hospital in Bandra at around 8:30 am. His family doctor Dr Sandeep Chopra brought him in. He was assessed, moved to the ICU and a whole team of doctors got to work - a neurologist, a cardiologist, a neurosurgeon, a nephrologist, all of them working together to figure out what was happening and what needed to be done.The next day the hospital put out a statement. Salim Khan had suffered a minimal brain haemorrhage. A procedure called DSA was performed by neurosurgeon Dr Nitin Dange on February 18 and it went well. No surgery. No complications. He was put on ventilator support as a precaution and kept in the ICU while the doctors monitored him closely.Dr Jalil Parkar spoke to the press around that time and was pretty straightforward about it. The haemorrhage was minimal. The procedure worked. Salim Khan was actually in good shape for his age. The ventilator was expected to come off within a day or two.Family Was There Through All of ItThe whole family turned up from Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, daughters Alvira and Arpita, sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma - all of them were coming in regularly to check on him. Javed Akhtar also visited. The two men have been connected for decades through one of the most celebrated creative partnerships Indian cinema has ever seen and Akhtar showing up said everything about how deep that bond still runs.Then Came TuesdayNearly a month after being admitted a source confirmed to PTI on Tuesday that Salim Khan had been discharged. The paperwork was done. He was still physically at the hospital when the update came through but the discharge process had been completed. After 28 days in hospital at the age of 90 that is genuinely a strong recovery.The Man and What He BuiltSalim Khan grew up in an affluent family in Indore and came to Mumbai in his twenties wanting to be part of the film world. He started out acting before switching lanes into writing. It was while working as an assistant to director Abrar Alvi that he first met Javed Akhtar. That meeting changed the course of Hindi cinema.Together the two of them — Salim-Javed as they became known — wrote around two dozen films. Sholay. Deewar. Don. Zanjeer. Trishul. Seeta Aur Geeta. Haathi Mere Saathi. Yaadon Ki Baarat. Mr India. Film after film that people still quote and reference today. The kind of work that does not age.Why This MattersSalim Khan is 90. When news broke in February that he had been hospitalised with a brain haemorrhage the worry was real and widespread. Not just from fans but from within the industry itself. He is not just a famous name — he is a living piece of Hindi cinema history.Tuesday's update is a good one. He is going home. And at 90 after a brain haemorrhage that is worth a moment of appreciation.
