For someone who hasn't had solid food for the last five years, 51-year-old Ravirajan looked fairly healthy. Not that he was on any fancy liquid diet, but the textile salesman admitted that he had completely lost taste for solid food in 2007. "I used to feel like vomiting every time I ate rice. Even if it went down, the pain and nausea made me put my fingers down my throat and bring it out," he recounted.

Diagnosed with HIV almost 12 years ago, the man from Krishnagiri knew that most doctors wouldn't be willing to take his medical woes seriously. When he walked into Lifeline Multispeciality Hospitals, they found that his gullet was constricted, making the passage of food difficult. "We used an endoscope and dilated it, but he was back in two months with the same problem," said Dr J S Rajkumar, chairman and chief surgeon. He came in to have his oesophagus dilated 27 times after that. It was then that doctors decided to attempt a complicated oesophageal replacement surgery on him. With HIV reducing his immunity, the fact that he wasn't eating solid food, lowered it further and reduced his possible life span.

If that isn't bad enough, doctors found that he had mouth infections, sores, ulcers and tuberculosis, making it an exceptionally risky surgery. "There were so many things that could go wrong. But luckily, we pulled through," said the surgeon, who conducted the 6-hour operation. A thoracolaparascopic surgery pulled his stomach up and attached it to his food pipe, while the degraded gullet was removed. After the surgery, doctors kept Ravi under observation for two whole days. "When he woke up, he asked for food," sobbed his wife, "I thought he was just trying to make me feel better, but he actually took the upma and feebly ate it," she added.

The fact that he can ingest food now means that his life span can be extended by at least 4-5 years.

But all that was on his mind was food. As he was wheeled out, he reached out for a cutlet,"This is heaven," he said as he broke into a smile.