The group also provides treatment at a rehabilitation centre in the Bidada area of Gujarat. Every expense of the patient and one of his caretakers is taken care of.
When a four-day-old tribal girl from Jawhar, about 130km from Mumbai, was diagnosed with club foot — a condition where the affected foot appears rotated at the ankle — her parents were in a state of panic. There was no orthopaedic surgeon around who could make sense of the problem. Desperate, they brought it to the notice of village level health workers.
Technology took over from then on. The health workers took video footage of the baby’s foot and sent the MMS clip across to Dr Taral Nagda, an orthopaedic pediatrician attached to Mumbai’s Saifee hospital. The girl’s parents described her condition to the doctor, who advised them how to go about the treatment.
“We are just making use of technology to serve patients in rural India,” said Nagda. He is part of a group of 20 city doctors who are helping poor patients from deprived areas with the help of mobile phones and web cameras as well as with direct intervention.
Patients without a cellphone or a phone without capacity to transmit MMS are asked to move to the nearest cybercafé. Images are taken on the webcam and then sent across to doctors. The core members of the group also visit places in the country affected by disasters to help victims. They expect to garner the support of at least 30 other super specialty surgeons and other medical specialists.
The group also provides treatment at a rehabilitation centre in the Bidada area of Gujarat. Every expense of the patient and one of his caretakers is taken care of. After the rehabilitation, if the patient is based in Mumbai, he/she is given follow-up treatment.
“We offer the best medical facilities to the needy free of cost. Most importantly, efforts are made to bring patients back into society by imparting them with vocational training,” says Dr Mukesh Doshi, consulting prosthetist and orthotist attached to Nanavati hospital, Santa Cruz.
The doctors are also using non-incisive surgeries in cases of muscle lengthening to save cost and time, and ultimately make life easier for patients.
Jyoti Parmar, 24, who was crippled after a wall fell on her during the Bhuj earthquake about a decade ago, has begun walking, thanks to the efforts of these doctors over the years.
“It’s like I am living a dream. All my hopes were shattered after the earthquake,” says Jyoti. The doctors also helped Jyoti settle down by helping her marry her childhood sweetheart Jayesh Solanki, 26, who was with her all through her troubled times.
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