Our Lady of Graces Hospital, Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh

Our Lady of Graces Hospital, Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh

The Old and the New- 120 years apart

The legendary Pilgrim Centre and Church

About 30 kms from Meerut town is the historic town of Sardhana *. Despite the efforts of missionaries over the last century in education and healthcare, the community and its neighbouring villages steadfastedly stays feudal in its approach, especially  to women and children.

SR LIZA

Always the sunny disposition

The sisters of the Fransiscan congregation here have been running the health facility here for the last three decades. A significant part in the development of healthcare here, especially in maternal and childcare can be credited to Dr Sr Liza (Batch of ’83). Working with this community for the last 22 years, Sr Liza has developed what was essentially a dispensary in the 80s to a full-fledged Hospital.

The only Sister Doctor in her congregation, the onus of the entire clinical work has been on her in all these years. Carrying patients requiring surgery to Meerut town through desolate terrain on vehicles, braving breakdowns and bandits, in the initial days, she has now managed to get a well-equipped OT system constructed at her Hospital. She cites strong support from her superior and administrator as the reason for recent improvements.

 

Pictures of 'Baby Nikky'- A 750 gms baby delivered and nursed to health at this centre

(from Sr Liza's cell phone)

Among the Johnites, she is especially appreciative of Nirmal Bernadette Kumar, who has been helping her with resources over the last many years. She is also proud of the venture started by her classmates ( The Batch of 1983 instituted in 2010 at their reunion) to contribute to the needs of the doctors in remote areas.

         Visit by the Principal Dr Alfred Mascarenhas, 1991(Archives)

Kashmir 1998- Earthquake relief(Archives)

(Through this blog, I will also try to acknowledge the efforts of the doctors both in India and overseas who give their time and resources supporting these worthy causes. Please write in mentioning more of these Johnites and doctors/ philanthropes supporting them)

*for the history buffs,do check Sardhana and Begum Sumroo on the net.

Christopher Lasrado of Chattarpur

Christopher Lasrado of Chattarpur

In Bundelkhand, 120 kms from Jhansi is the town of Chattarpur.  The Chief of the Christian Hospital in Chattarpur is Dr Christopher Lasrado (Batch of ’84). A surgeon by training, Christopher , at the time I met him was also the functioning physician/pediatrician/surgeon/sonologist in addition to being the Medical Administrator.

Description of  his seventeen year journey through the missions and the group he works with( Emmanuel Hospitals Association of India) will take a few more blogs like this, so I will just chronicle in this post:

A typical day in the life of Chris Lasrado.

7:30 am- Chris steps out of home

8:00 am- Clinical Team briefing after the morning prayer session

Doctors outside the Fellowship Hall

8:30 am- At the morning class in the new library

9:00 am- Morning rounds, case of DU perforation, post op 6 hrs

9:15 am- Called for administrative trouble shooting

9:30 am- demonstrating to a young surgeon

10:00 am- At the out patient department(80 -100 patients)

6:45 pm- At the Emergency Department

9:30 pm- Called in to the minor OT

10:15 pm- Night rounds

It was getting late and a man's got to get his sleep, so off I went. Christopher was seen counseling some relatives into the wee hours.....

What do we intend to do with this?

What do we intend to do with this?

Before I proceed further with the posts from North India, I thought It would be useful to share this with you. Bear with me- it’s a longish post.

Over the last one and a half years, as the project of getting in touch with our outreach alumni was being planned, we thought as to what use can be made of the collected information. By us, I mean all the people I discussed the project with, inside and out of the Institute.

Many wonderful suggestions have come in:

    a)The academic mandate- the requirements that the doctors have are quite varied. They often handle cases out of their core expertise eg. Surgeon or obstetrician dealing with paediatrics/ neurology/dermatology etc. So there is a very real requirement to augment their knowledge base to the extent that they can handle a majority of these cases confidently. Regional CMEs and regular (monthly) medical newsletters seem to be the way forward here. Structured courses at St John’s are also being considered.

   b)Capacity building for the outreach hospitals- where possible to help them out with advice on hospital systems, human resources, and legalities.( I can already hear sounds of – ‘put your house in order first’  ) Their requirements are often quite finite and do able. Also, as St John’s  as also a number of tertiary care centres have been through the teething trouble in lots of issues, we can advise them on pitfalls to avoid.

      c) Specialist help for remote doctors: With increased broadband penetrance, it will be possible in the near future to offer those teleservices, even ‘real time’. It is a dream for specialists to step in and spend some time in these centres, but where there is a will……..

      d)Establishment of a cell/ office in campus to help outreach doctors: There is nothing which works as well as having a physical presence in the parent Institute.( There is often a case of – Out of sight, out of mind!) They will then be able to articulate their requirements regularly. One of the forums  is the Sister Doctors Forum of India.

)    e)Creating a document honouring their work and lives: The blog is just a very small beginning. We have a team in St John’s working on an audiovisual presentation with this material. Also all collected material will be handed over to the History of St John’s Museum set up by Dr Mario Vaz. Though my own trips are few in comparison to the large numbers, I hope in time we will be able to collect information and pictorial documents of as many of our doctors as possible. We have multiple plans to address that issue eg. Encouraging students to visit the centres close to home on their vacations.

 The ramifications of reaching out are many as you can see (I am not even mentioning the obvious intangibles) and we will not only be helping them but growing ourselves.

 

While on this topic, I have a point to make.The focus , I feel has been too much on ‘ What has St John’s done for us?’, ‘What is the point of doing anything?’, 'Look at the multiple ways we have been screwed over?’. This gives rise to an all pervading cynicism, which is transmitted to the younger generations, who then leave the Institute with no role models, no goodwill for the alma mater and often a sense of misplaced entitlement. Make no mistake- no one is a role model for pointing fingers, but for affecting change. Also, our locus standi as Johnites would then have to be attributed to our uniqueness as individuals alone and not in any measure to the Institute itself. (Sorry to be preachy, but my spiel is less JFK, more Jerry Maguire)

I refuse to be an apologist for anyone and believe everyone is capable of defending themselves. So I will not take up cudgels on anyone’s behalf. But I would encourage all naysayers to reflect on their roles as positive influences. Or just look at it this way- where has all this bickering, trying to ‘name and shame’ etc got us? Let us not try to hide behind ‘we call it as we see it’? Do we see or can we ever see enough for us to make that call?

From my recent experiences at least, I am deeply humbled by the lives and work I am seeing. And that is not only in the outreaches, but here in St John’s as well as well as in the cities, very often done quietly without fanfare- their satisfaction of a job well done is reward enough for them.

Enough said.

Emmaus Referral Hospital and Leprosy Center , Palamaner

Emmaus Referral Hospital and Leprosy Center , Palamaner

What can one write about one of the most popular Johnite rural centers situated in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh started and still administered by that iconic Johnite of the 60s, Dr Auburn Jacob? Plenty,to be sure.Scores of doctors have passed through its portals, doing clinical, surgical, community and now cutting edge research work.

  

 In this blog, I will share with you a few photographs from my recent trip. Mario Vaz ( Batch of ’79), Professor of Physiology and Head- Division of Humanities at the St John’s Research Institute , involved with this center in different ways over the last many years, took me  along and introduced me to the place and its work over the last three decades.

MCR slippers-At the footwear fabricating unit

Among the multiple facilities at the Hospital are the footwear fabricating and ointment manufacturing unit for leprosy patients.

Mrs Kathleen and Dr Auburn Jacob at the School

  


 Perceiving  a need in the community, Mrs Kathleen Jacob was invited to start a school on campus which has gone from strength to strength and has completed its 25 years.

Pictorial Education boards drawn by Mario Vaz, during his rural service 25 years back , still occupying pride of place in the general ward.

The work at this place and its influence on Johnites can be best described by someone who has been closely associated with this Center and Dr Auburn. I am hoping to get Mario to do that sometime soon...............

 

Johnites all- (from the left) Abhita Braganza('04), Auburn Jacob('69),Mario Vaz('79), Joel Tuscano('04),Nelson Jesuraj('84) and Binu Joy('89)

 SNEHALAYA HOSPITAL, SOLUR- KARNATAKA

SNEHALAYA

About 18 kms from Nelamangala, off the Bangalore-Mangalore Highway is the small town of Solur. Here, run by the Sisters of Charity of the Saints B. Capitano and V. Gerosa congregation is the Snehalaya Hospital, a boon for the community. In addition to being the most important healthcare provider, the Sisters have done wonderful work over the last 37 years in community upliftment.
 

Dr Sr Gladys with interns Priyanka and Kim(Batch of 2006)

The Hospital has had Dr Sr Gladys Menezes at its helm for the last 8 years. An ‘82 batch Johnite, Sr Gladys, an OB&G specialist with help of  largely house surgeons has kept this center functioning efficiently.
 

New In patient and OT facility

A 50 bed inpatient facility, this hospital sees an average of 160-250 patients per day in the outpatient department. Approximately 160-180 deliveries including caesarian sections are conducted every month.
Growing incrementally over the last 37 years, the latest addition to the facillity is a revamped inpatient facility with an OT complex and neonatal facility.
 

Dr Sr Maristella ( archives)

Started as Snehalaya sociomedical relief center, this Hospital also known in these regions as the ‘Church Hospital’, really started impacting  the community during the 25 year stint of Dr Sr Maristella Saldanha
Multiple community programs particularly targeting women and children have been running for the past three decades; Grahini, Tailoring and Embroidery courses, Rehabilitation Center( 75 houses), Facility for orphaned/ abandoned/ special children, nursery school, Nursing aid course etc.
 


This center , over the years has been credited for training generations of Johnite doctors in OB & Gynae skills, giving them their first true exposure to practice in resource poor settings.
 
Of the many simple yet remarkable interventions pioneered at this centre, one recounted by Sr Maristella( now working at a hospital in Bhatkal), comes readily to mind:
The hygiene and nutritional levels of the people were abysmal in the 70s with high maternal and infant morbidity/ morality. She recorded about 12 health promotion talks which used to be played continuously over the public address system at the Hospital; the villagers ,used to listening and following messages on the radio, found these rather inspiring. Through these and personally supervised simple interventions, the situation was turned around so that by the early 80s, the region had one of the lowest infant/ maternal mortality indices.

From the Solur Motorcycle diaries (archives)