The coronavirus crisis forced a rickshaw puller to rent a bicycle and travel 100 kilometres from West Bengal’s Purulia to Jamshedpur in Jharkhand with his ailing wife and daughter for medical treatment.
Hit financially by the coronavirus lockdown, the family had little means to survive. However, Hari, towing his 29-year-old wife Bandini and a seven-year-old daughter, traveled on a bicycle after they were reportedly refused treatment by several doctors in their hometown.
Bandini was crying of abdominal pain and on reaching Ganga Memorial Hospital, she was examined by the doctors without any delay.
Doctor N. Singh examined the woman and found that her appendix had burst which required immediate surgery.
The doctors after watching the patient’s deteriorating condition and listening to Hari’s ordeal performed the surgery free of cost and saved Bandini’s life.
‘When I took my wife to the hospital in Purulia, the doctors were not even ready to touch her and charged us of spreading coronavirus. They asked us to take her to elsewhere while she was crying of acute abdominal pain,’ said Hari, reported The New Indian Express.
Hari added that patients who are challenged financially face lack of medical attention in West Bengal.
‘Looking at the seriousness of the patient, we decided not to wait further and performed the operation to remove her appendix as it had already busted and might put her in danger,’ said Dr N Singh.
Besides free surgery, the hospital provided free of cost accommodation in the hospital during the treatment, free medication and also provided the family food throughout their stay.
According to reports, Bandini was discharged from the hospital after a week’s treatment when she completely recovered. She was sent back home in a hospital ambulance.
Dr Singh narrated the story behind the kind gesture. He said as he had lost his father due to lack of treatment before he started practising in 1990 in Jamshedpur. Due to this experience, he had promised his mother that he will not deny treatment to anybody for not having money.
In another heartwarming gesture, the doctors also paid Hari’s bicycle rent and presented him with a new bicycle.
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