'I bought a restaurant from my intensive care bed'

A man who bought a restaurant from his intensive care bed after undergoing a double lung transplant has hosted a fundraising dinner for the hospital that helped to save him.

Restaurateur Kris Bashyal, 46, from Peterborough, was operated on at Royal Papworth Hospital, in Cambridge, in November 2023 after being told it was the "only option" he had to survive.

To keep his spirits up during his four-month recovery, his daughter - who had taken over the co-running of his existing restaurant - told him about a building she had spotted for sale.

It is now the new Kathmandu Lounge and it hosted the weekend's fundraiser, which was attended by a hospital medical team who had become "like a family".

Mr Bashyal, who also has a son Aryan, 15, spent more than a fortnight in a coma after his transplant as his new lungs struggled to respond, as first reported by the Peterborough Telegraph.

He was still in intensive care in February and could still barely talk when his daughter Jasmine, now 20, visited him with news that a former bank building would make a good second restaurant.

After she left, he searched for the building online, despite being advised against it by medics.

"I asked her 'how do you cope with me being ill and running the restaurant - it's quite tough' and she goes, 'I decided not to go to university - I just want to carry on with this business'," said Mr Bashyal.

"I was searching for the building and one of the consultants said 'do not do anything silly - do not do any stressful work'.

"I decided to buy it from the ICU bed... I'm so proud of her.

"I just wanted to lead by example to my kids, that, no matter what, you still have to put your head up and carry on."

Mr Bashyal said he had always tried to remain positive, both in the lead up to his transplant and afterwards.

He spent eight months on the transplant list and was called to hospital 12 times.

On each occasion he had an hour's notice to say goodbye to loved ones and get to hospital, where he would spend up to 10 hours' preparing for theatre, before the successful transplant finally went ahead.

The businessman had suffered from the autoimmune disease scleroderma - which can cause a thickening in the skin and other tissues - for about 15 years.

Despite the illness, he said his life was relatively normal until he had a third Covid jab which seemed to adversely affect his lungs.

Mr Bashyal said he was now committed to raising funds for Royal Papworth and had decided to mark his transplant by now celebrating his birthday in November, when he planned to hold an annual charity night.

The Indian and Nepalese restaurant, in Peterborough, will open on Thursday, but Mr Bashyal said it had been important to hold the weekend's fundraiser, which is also running online, and to welcome 12 of his clinicians to celebrate with him.

"The team at Papworth was fantastic and... I just wanted to do a little bit for them to say thank you," he said.

"I stayed there for quite a long time - [they] became like a family to me and they were so happy and proud to see me doing really well."

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