7 Sep 2008,  Purnia

Today was a very interesting day.  Br Nijamrita and Dr Rammohan and myself went to meet the District Magistrate Mr Sridhar to discuss various issues regarding setting up a long term temporary shelters and to finalize the place for it. During the meeting he also suggested various relief camps which were very much in need of medical services. One of them was the Janata colony better known as the Aam Bagh camp because it is located in a mango grove.

We reached there around mid day and saw thousands of small hut type accommodations all around, accommodating several thousand people in each such camp. We immediately set up the doctor’s consultation table and also made a small enclosure to regulate the flow of patients in a disciplined manner. Yesterday the patients were allover the doctors, hardly giving them any space to work!

Many people here, had escaped after staying on roof tops for nearly 15days!  They seemed to be in abject poverty, and the flood had only worsened the crisis. Many of them had lost all will to continue living and face the future. There were also a few who had refused to leave their homes and had to be forcefully evacuated from their house. Because they did not want to give away everything that they had earned for all their lives like their home, wealth, cattle, stock of food grains and near and dear ones etc.  Many had got separated from their families and were unsure whether they had made it to safety or succumb to the floods.

The doctors did a great job and saw the patients at a brisk pace to the great satisfaction of all– the patient, the doctor and the numerous onlookers. Dr Ram Mohan and team give out the medicines as per the prescriptions. Within four hours the doctors had treated nearly 400 patients. But in that process they had to forego their meals.

We reached our accommodation back by 19.30. On the return journey we were introduced to some local officials and they were astonished with the kind of qualitative service our medical team has been providing. It seems, the word has gone around about the proficiency of our doctors and requests for more such camps have started coming on the second day itself.

– Sadasiva Chaitanya