Chipilima: Days after reports surfaced that a senior resident doctor of Burla based VIMSAR carried a leprosy patient in his arms to help him cross a busy street, the doctor — identified as Shankar Ramchandani — has been featured on the website of Odisha Government’s Department of Health and Family Welfare.
The Department of Health and Family Welfare has put the newspaper clippings that describe the doctor’s Good Samaritan gesture on its website, mentioning what Ramchandani did is an example for others.
Odia newspaper ‘Dharitri’, English daily ‘OrissaPOST’ and their portals had carried the news of Ramchandani’s noble gesture.
It may be mentioned here that Dr Ramchandani saw an elderly leper trying to cross a busy road to reach the leper colony across the street this Monday while he was on the roads. After watching him struggle wading through the bumper to bumper traffic, the doctor parked his car by the street-side and walked down to the person.
After enquiring about the patients’ destination, Ramchandani then carried the person in his hands and dropped him in his hut.
An onlooker, meanwhile, captured the entire incident in his mobile phone and made it go viral.
Meanwhile, the doctor’s efforts have come to the notice of the State Government.
Ramchandani says leprosy never gets transmitted upon touching the patients. “It is our misconception. Due to this misconception they are being treated with hatred in society. In our educated society, such belief should not have had a place,” he said.
PNN