Nagpur: Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Nagpur, has not only treated an accident victim woman and cured her but also helped her to reunite with her family, after 20 years.
In August this year, a woman was admitted to Ward No. 17 of the Department of Orthopaedic. Her details were forwarded to the Social Services Department of GMCH. Purnima Ghavaghve, Social Services Superintendent, managed to win the patient’s confidence after continuous counselling. Soon, she could extract detailed information about the patient’s history.
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Wednesday 05 Feb. 2025
According to the doctors, the patient was brought to GMCH by 108 ambulance from Umred Rural Hospital. She had met with an accident due to which one of legs got fractured. Dr Sumedh Choudhary, Head of the Department, supervised her treatment personally. Dr Manish Kawade started treating the woman. It was difficult to perform the operation as the patient had very low blood count. Then, with the help of another Social Services Superintendent, Kishore Dharmale, six units of blood were arranged and given to the patient.
Her leg needed an implant. Since she had no identity card or ration card, the treatment cost could not be covered under any of the State health schemes. Dr Avinash Gawande, Medical Superintendent, then decided to take help of a social organisation through the Social Service Department. With the help of a social organisation, arrangements were made for the expensive implant following which the patient was operated upon. Even after a successful implant, the patient could not walk properly. No social institution was ready to accept the patient for her rehabilitation.
Subsequently, under the guidance of Dr Avinash Gawande, the team of Social Services Superintendent including Shyam Panjala, Sachin Daud, Naresh Nasre conveyed the woman’s information to Umred Police. The police shared the patient’s details on social media so as to reach out to their counterparts and citizens. The idea clicked. A few days ago, a man searching for his mother for last 20 years reached GMCH Nagpur. To his surprise, the patient did turn out to be his mother. His joy knew no bounds on seeing his mother after 20 long years.
He informed the doctors that he was only 12 years old when his mother had left home. He searched for her for 10 years and later, gave up on ever meeting her.
Dr Raj Gajbhiye, Dean; Dr Avinash Gawande, with the help of the Social Services Department, donated a walker to the patient when she was discharged. While departing, the woman expressed her gratitude towards the Medical Superintendent, Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Harshal Pachpore, Dr Piyush Kherde and nursing staff of the hospital.
