‘100% a miracle’: East Orlando team saves patient after massive internal bleed

ORLANDO, Fla. – Nandaram Ragbir is alive today thanks to the fast-acting medical team at AdventHealth East Orlando — and 46 units of donated blood.

Ragbir, 70, had been experiencing abdominal discomfort for months, but on a Friday morning, everything changed.

“I was outside of the house drinking a cup of tea when he asked me to come inside and look,” recalled his wife, Dolly Soogrim. She found her husband vomiting blood. “I panicked so much.”

By the time emergency responders arrived, Ragbir was weak and collapsing. He was rushed to AdventHealth East Orlando, where a massive response was already forming.

“At that point, they were mass transfusing the patient,” said Maria Chiles, a radiologic technologist. “There were several ICU doctors, nurses, and a person from endoscopy doing the procedure. They were just transfusing bag after bag of blood cells just trying to maintain his pressure.”

The source of Ragbir’s internal bleeding wasn’t immediately visible. And time was running out.

“I could tell there was an urgency to the case because the ICU doctor called me directly,” said Dr. Henry Chou, an interventional radiologist. “What made this case stand out was the severity. It was more than we typically see.”

In cases like this, teamwork across departments is crucial.

“The ability to collaborate makes people comfortable with discussing very challenging situations,” Chou said. “That’s how we figure out a plan to make things work.”

Within minutes, Ragbir was in the interventional radiology lab.

“I knew my team had already had the lab set up,” Chiles said. “We’ve trained for this before — but I also knew they hadn’t seen it to this level before.”

Using advanced imaging, Chou was able to identify the source of the bleeding and stop it using a procedure called embolization.

“In this case, we saw the bleed pretty quickly,” Chou said. “We could tell exactly where it was coming from.”

By then, Ragbir had received an extraordinary amount of blood.

“For a patient to receive 46 units of blood — that’s an extremely high volume,” Chou said. “That’s what was required to keep him alive.”

His wife never left his side.

“They told me he was losing a lot of blood. It was the first time I’d ever heard of someone getting over 40 bags,” Soogrim said. “We didn’t realize how important it was to donate blood until this happened to us.”

The gratitude is palpable — not just for the anonymous donors who gave their blood, but for the team who knew exactly how to use it when every second counted.

“To the people who donated blood — I don’t know who you are, but I thank you a lot,” said Ragbir. “You saved my life.” He credits Dr. Chou and his team for the rest. “They knew what to do. Because of them — and because of that blood — I’m still here.”

For Chiles, the experience was unlike anything she had seen in nearly a decade.

“I’ve never seen a bleed this significant,” she said. “100% a miracle. 100%.”