Gajansoo family praises white coat warriors for humanitarian gesture amid lockdown

Despite being hard-pressed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, a medical team of a block hospital went beyond the call of duty to attend to an 85-year-old bedridden woman in the outskirts of Jammu -- a gesture which came as a big relief to the patient and her family amid the lockdown. The three-member team went to Savitri Devi's home in Gajansoo on Friday for catheter replacement.

A catheter is a soft hollow tube, which is passed into the bladder to drain urine, and needs to be replaced at regular intervals to avoid setting up of infection or blockages in the pipes. A blockage in the catheter could lead to unbearable pain, especially in older patients. "It was an extremely humbling experience to see the three-member team arrive at our home for my aged and sick mother,” Devi's son Group Captain Kamal Singh Oberh, who has recently taken premature retirement from Air Force Station Jammu, said.

"Hat's off to all that they are doing. This retired air warrior salutes these white coat warriors,” he said, uttering “Jai Hind”. Oberh said his mother has been a bedridden patient for the past couple of years now.

“Due to old age-related medical conditions, she is unable to walk or even turn sides on her own and her condition is further complicated as she has been permanently put on a catheter for the last two years,” he said. Devi's family had arranged for a medical practitioner from Jammu city to replace this catheter every fortnight. In the last week of March when the family was required to replace the catheter, they had no choice but to somehow take her to the nearest hospital at Marh as the regular person could not reach due to the lockdown.

"She was attended to at the hospital on priority and was free to leave for home shortly after her arrival there. However, the inconvenience which she probably had to go through in coming to the hospital, which would have only repeated on her way back home, did not go unnoticed by the staff at the hospital," Oberh said. "On Friday when we contacted the BMO for catheter replacement, he asked us not to move out and instead wait for a medical team at home. Within the next 30 minutes, a three-member team comprising pharmacist Yash Sharma and two nursing staff Poonam and Meenakshi arrived at our doorstep with requisite equipment for catheter replacement," he said.