As per every year the trust conducted a medical camp on 9th Oct.2016 at Salungan.This time with free eye check up and surgery, free dental check up and treatment facility was also provided for the people of Salungan. The team included ophthalmologist Dr. Anil Paranjpe and Dr. Mrs. Medha Paranjpe, Renowned Dentist Dr. Akshay Gokhale and his wife Dr. Mrs. Gokhale, Mr. Tingare and team from Aundh Hospital, technicians from Om Swami Samarth Pathology centre along with trained staff including Chandrakant Katkar, Mansi Jaygude and Roshan Patil. The handbills were distributed in the surrounding villages, days before the camp. The Sarpanch and important people from the locality were also informed about the said camp. The responsibility of all this camp was largely on the shoulders of Dr. Anil Paranjpe and Dr. Mrs. Medha Paranjpe.
Trustee Dr. Anil Paranjpe realized the need of HIV screening of the local population. Over a period of time during the perpetual Trust activity in this area, he became aware of the HIV affection of some locals. And thus the HIV screening was carried out with the help of Aundh General hospital, HIV unit. Mr. Balaji Tingre and his associates carried out the counseling and sample collection for HIV testing.
Also with HIV testing certain other Blood and Urine tests were conducted with the help of Shree Swami Samarth Diagnostic center, Pune. The blood tests like :Haemograme
Blood sugar
Lipid profile
etc were performed after collecting the blood sample.
Miss. Ann Debuqe, American citizen, Intensive care nurse, attended the camp.
During eye examination 11 patients were found to require eye surgery like Cataract and DCR. These patients were given the date for surgery. The patients were to report at Nayan Tara Eye Clinic on 20th October 2016. The patients reported at Nayan Tara Eye Clinic and their respective eye surgery was performed on the same day. The patients stayed at Nayan Tara Eye Clinic for one complete day. The food and stay was looked after by the trust. On the next day the patients were examined and discharged. They were instructed to come for follow up at Salungan hospital after 8 days.
During the dental examination 7 patients required dental extraction and 1 patient required gingival tumor excision. Dr. Gokhales carried out these dental procedures at the camp venue with complete safety and care. All patients who were registered for the camp, gave their either blood or urine sample for testing.
The blood samples of 85 patients were collected for HIV I and II testing by the Aundh hospital, HIV center councilor and technician. All these patients were thoroughly counseled by the councilor. Adv. Onkar Tilekar supervised the counseling in legal context. Adv. Tilekar is a colleague of Adv. Ajay Patwardhan, Pune. Adv. Ajay Patwardhan is a patron and well-wisher of the trust. The team found a very disturbing fact that, out of the 85 test samples, 5 are HIV+. The issue was discussed with the elderly villagers and some disturbing reasons were found. Some of the reasons like illiteracy, ignorance, and non-discipline were found to be the cause. Because of unfavorable conditions for agriculture the youths went to cities like Pune, Mumbai, in search of job. Due to illiteracy the jobs they got were not decent, like daily wage laborer, waiter’s job on roadside eateries or shacks, petrol pump helper. They earned a meager salary, the part of it they sent to their families back home, retaining some for their use. Being away from the family with no watch from the elders, this youth gets lost and gets involved in alcohol drinking, prostitution, etc. Thus in turn getting infected with the virus.
This is the 8th camp since 2005 undertaken and carried out smoothly and efficiently by the Trust. Battling with all the obstacles in the way like transportation problem, financial problem, local people problem. This determined team of doctors made it out there to help the local people to change their life for better. Of course the contribution and involvement of – Trustee Mrs. Vishakha Velankar really needs to be saluted.
