The life of a Rishikesh based 84-year-old retired school teacher, who had suffered a stroke and brain haemorrhage, was saved after Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, who was travelling on a flight from New Delhi to Dehradun, overheard the anxious conversation of the son of the ailing father.
Vinay Sharma, who runs a public relations firm in Rishikesh, had gone to Varanasi on an official trip on 25 January when he was informed by his neighbours that his father Ram Niwas Sharma had suffered a stroke on the morning of 27 January.
An anxious Sharma, who immediately rushed to New Delhi from Varanasi to catch the 30-minute long flight to Dehradun, was talking to his friends about his father’s health when Nadda, who was also going to Dehradun, overheard the conversation.
“I was constantly calling up and receiving calls from my friends who were there with my father and when I sat in the flight my friends told me that the doctor at AIIMS Rishikesh had told them to take my father urgently to the Jollygrant-based Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, as his condition was very critical. I got extremely worried as now my friends would have to do all the pre hospitalisation process, arrange for an MRI, seek bed urgently and we were discussing all this when an individual asked me what had happened. It was then that I realised that it was Naddaji, my co-passenger, who all this time was listening to my conversation. He asked me to stay calm. As soon as our flight landed in Doon at around 3 pm and the mobile network came, he called up his staff and asked them to coordinate my father’s treatment at the Himalayan hospital. By the time I exited the airport, the treatment of my father had started and by God’s grace and the capabilities of the doctors of the hospital, he is fine now and despite having partial paralysis, is responding to us and is conscious,” Vinay told The Sunday Guardian. Nadda was going to Uttarakhand where he is the poll in-charge.
AIIMS Rishikesh is still grappling with a shortage of doctors even after four years since it started. Only 93 out of the total sanctioned strength of 200 doctors are working. It does not have a system of dialysis or even an emergency ward to cater to accident and trauma victims.
According to Anup Rawal, a staff member of the Himalayan Hospital, the hospital got communication from the office of the Health Minister and the treatment started soon.
“The patient had suffered a stroke and he had a history of high blood pressure and sugar and his BP was 220/110 when he arrived. Our doctors led by Manish Mittal, who is a neurologist, immediately started his treatment and he is stable now,” said Rawal.
According to Vinay, the Health Minister told him not to worry and assured him that everything would be fine. ‘“Aap wahan jao, mai baat karta hun. (You rush to the hospital,’ I will speak to them), he told me as we were landing. And if he had not intervened, I do not know what would have happened. If everyone does this, helping strangers who are in need, the world will change for the better. Inspired by what had happened with me, I too did something similar for a family who was in great distress,” he added.