Amritsar Hospital comes to the aid of Photojournalist –Bijendra Ahlawat in The Tribune

Amritsar hospital comes to aid of photojournalist
Bijendra Ahlawat/TNS

Rohtak, September 5
Raj Kishan Nain, an eminent photojournalist who faces the risk of losing his eyesight due to severe damage to his eyes, has found a ray of hope with the offer of help extended by an Amritsar-based eye institute after the publication of a news report in these columns on Sunday.

Dr Rohit Om Prakash, Director of the Dr Om Prakash Eye Institute, Amritsar, has contacted Raj Kishan and has offered to help him.

In an e-mail to Raj Kishan, the doctor has stated that the institute was ready to provide surgical and other treatment free of cost to him.

“Dr Rohit Om Prakash was touched by the story published about the ace photojournalist and decided to help him by taking up his case on priority,” said Rashmi Talwar, media manager of the institute. “Raj Kishan should contact the hospital at his convenience, but at the earliest,” she said.

It may be recalled that the Tribune had carried a story titled “Ace journalist faces loss of vision” on September 4 in which it had been revealed how Raj Kishan, based in a village in the district here, had been fighting a long battle to get back his vision fully but was unable to do so as he was suffering from a rare kind of problem. Though he had been told by doctors to get his eyes operated for cataract if he wanted to avoid total blindness, but with a burnt retina, the hope of getting his sight back seemed bleak. Confirming the offer made to him, Raj Kishan said would contact Dr Rohit Om Prakash soon.

Though Raj Kishan is the only photo-artiste from the northern region whose work has been featured in three permanent art galleries set up in his name, the government is yet to make any offer of help or assistance to ensure the recovery of his sight.

FOLLOW–UP ON STORY OF —“22 HEP-C AND “1” HIV AIDS IN BORDER VILLAGE NARLI”

Villagers panic over death of one by AIDS in border village Narli ….50 infected with HIV AIDS, 70 with Hep-C
Eye hospital’s random testing opens Pandora’s Box on fast spreading deadly diseases in village

Rashmi Talwar

AMRITSAR SEPT -23, 2010———Awareness Camp by health department headed by Dr Swarnjit Dhawan in village Narli on Indo Pak border on Wednesday found a alarming situation, with a dozen deaths due to HIV+ AIDS in recent years while ‘three’ had succumbed to deadly Hep-C virus.
It is pertinent to mention that a routine test of 74 patients found with cataract by ‘Dr Om Parkash Eye Hospital’ had found 22 of them infected with Hep-C and one –HIV +AIDS, in this village near Amritsar recently .
This revelation by Director of the Hospital Dr Rohit Om Parkash had opened a Pandora’s Box about fast spreading deadly diseases in this border village.

During the camp by health department, village sarpanch Mukhtar Singh expressed his annoyance to the health authorities who had never taken any steps for health care in their village.
He revealed to them that about 50 persons were afflicted with HIV AIDS while 70 were infected with deadly with Hep-C.
There was poor attendance at the camp even though the announcement was made through a public address in village gurdwara .
Shocking details were let out by some who attended the camp (all names changed).

Parampreet Kaur revealed that she was married to a truck driver who died with AIDS and later she was married to her younger brother-in-law and now both have HIV AIDS.
One Kabal Singh and Harjit Singh also died due to AIDS. Sham Singh said his wife died of AIDS and he too is infected.

A 35 year said he did not come to know how he got infected with HIV AIDS and then his wife too got infected. The couple lost their son to AIDS as also a 6-month old daughter Aman. Later his wife also died with the same disease.
Sarpanch Mukhtar Singh said in recent years about a dozen persons had died of AIDS. Jagdeep Kaur wife of school principal died of Hep-C as also wives of two other persons. The sarpanch revealed that these deadly diseases were fast spreading due to quacks, drug addicts and drug peddlers in the village.
The village has 850 houses and a population count of 12,000 out of which 3600 persons were adults and 50 % were dalits.
The Sarpanch appealed to the Health authorities to conduct tests in the village to identify those infected with HIV AIDS and HEP-C and take urgent measures to arrest the spread of the diseases. He also urged the law enforcing authorities to nab drug peddlers and provide de-addiction clinics for drug addicts.

PS : Plz conduct your own verification with health authorities

22- Persons found with deadly Hepatitis-C , One HIV+ in Indo-Pak border village Narli,

Women too among effected

BY RASHMI TALWAR

Amritsar September 18, 2010—————-

In what seems to be an eye –opener , mandatory blood tests of patients suffering from Cataract (Eye Problem) diagnosed in a camp organized by “Dr Om Parkash Eye Institute” in Village Narli on the Indo Pak border, led to an alarming disclosure of 22 patients found to be afflicted with Hepatitis-C while one person was found to be HIV+.
The hospital team headed by its director Dr Rohit Om Parkash , Mr Maqbool and others organized a follow up camp in this village recently, after the alarming results of Hep-C and HIV+infection were found in blood tests of these patients.
In the earlier camp, the eye specialist medical team had detected a total of 74 cases of ‘Cataract’ and when routine blood tests of these 74 patients for HIV+ and Hep-C were conducted prior to cataract surgery in the hospital at Amritsar, 22 of them were found to be afflicted with Hep-C virus while one man was found with HIV+ status.
The age group of affected patients found with Hep-C ranged from 35 to 70 years including many women. A woman aged 70 years too was found to be affected by the disease.
At the follow up camp organized in Government Senior Secondary School, Narli, the Principal of the school Mr Lakha Singh and village Sarpanch Mr Mukhtar Singh were informed of the detection of this disease that caused severe liver damage and proved fatal in cases, if left untreated.
The principal while talking to the doctors disclosed that approximately 30 to 35 percent of village population and around, especially males had taken to drugs and 20 percent of these were using injections. Being a border village, the drugs are smuggled from the neighboring country of Pakistan and are easily available in the village.
He also stated that mostly RMP (Registered medical Practitioners) were handling patients in the village and reportedly some of them were using fake medical documents and were taking little or no precautions in administering injections or using other sterilization techniques to safeguard patients as well as themselves.
The doctors explained to patients at Narli village that Hepatitis C virus is spread by blood-to-blood contact especially by sharp instruments or coming in contact with infected blood from sharing needles or other household items like nail clippers, toothbrushes, tattooing, even menstruation, saliva , and nose bleeds. Unprotected sex too caused this virus to spread. In the early stages of infection patients may show signs of fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle aches or fever, later yellowing of the skin or eyes (jaundice) are manifested as its symbols. The Principal of the school also revealed to the visiting doctors that a shrine “Sidh Baba Bodh Nath” widely believed to have divine powers in healing jaundice drew thousands of patients suffering from jaundice each Sunday in their village.
Dr Rohit urged the state authorities to take urgent notice of the fast spreading virus in this village and around to prevent it from taking epidemic proportions. “ It is a scary situation wherein we find that majority of these patients remain undetected. The risk factor thus for medical treating personnel has increased manifold and is alarming”.
Dr Rohit drew the attention of state wherein investigations for Hep –B, C and HIV prior to even minor surgery very a necessity for general well being of the public.

KIDNAPPED GIANDEEP @RICHIE IS STILL ALIVE : PARENTS

Kidnapped Giandeep@Richie 's parents

BY Rashmi Talwar

Four Sikh boys came in a white ‘Maruti’ van with tinted glasses, one stepped out, picked lil Giandeep@Richie from a cycle Rikshaw in the cantonment area of Amritsar, that fateful morning of August 19, 1996 and the “world came crashing down” for Dr Hardeep Singh and his wife Mrs Harpreet Kaur.

“Our Lives Changed Forever,” says Harpreet whose younger son Gaindeep only 5- years, was kidnapped that morning. “For past 14 years there has not been a moment’s peace, not a happy time that we really enjoyed. By taking our son the four, have permanently wiped the smiles off our faces.

I knew that, asking them to relive the incident was going to hurt, but I moved forward, as I left myself no choices.. “THIS had to be done and SHARED !”

IT HAPPENED ……
Dr Hardeep opened layers of his child’s memorabilia, showed us his ‘last’ school bag that was left behind in the rikshaw when 4-kidnappers– all young, came with muffled faces. The poor rikshaw walla showed courage, scuffled and caught the main kidnapper’s leg, who kicked him with the second leg and made off with the child. The only witness to this, is the rickshaw wala, a woman selling corn on the roadside and an employee of a school.
Giandeep, being the youngest was sitting in the middle of five older children. The petrified children ran off following this..” , wiping his tears, he continued — ” I was at the time writing thesis at the Library of Government Medical college, Amritsar when some known people came and whisked me off home without telling me anything on the way.
When they said “Richie is Kidnapped’ I felt the earth had given way under me. Ever since sleep has evaded us, we have shattering dreams and in some we see Richie smiling and we long to hold him in our arms, hug and kiss him everywhere…..

ONLY 5 DAYS BEFORE HIS B’DAY ……

As the father showed us Giandeep’s school notebooks and report card, he pointed to the rank ..” See Giandeep was brilliant, stood first in his class in nursery and only joined the Junior Study School, Amritsar in the April of that fateful year 1996.
Just as, we were preparing to celebrate his 5th B’day that falls on 24th August, with this two favourite songs “Akhiyan milaon, kabhi akhiyan jhukaon , kia tu ne kia jaddoooooooo……” and “Mai hi Mai, munder pe Bol raha hai Kaga….”, which he sang with a multicolored umbrella on his head …, he was abducted.
Remembering every small detail about him, the father says.. “He Called me ‘Dey Da’, said he resembled me and not his mom, otherwise a quiet boy, very obedient, organized in everything , would polish his shoes everyday, refuse to wear an unwashed garment, loved combining red with his blue jeans. And oh! he was left- handed , Very fair complexioned ,had a black spot in his left eye and a prominent 1 ½ inch birthmark on his upper left thigh .” Surprisingly, No Ransom call was ever received.

HE IS ALIVE

Holding a lil school craft, the mother showed “Giandeep had made this in school”. Opening a pencil box, she peeped, “See how neatly he kept his pencils, sharpner, eraser and color box..”. He loved coloring and could solve addition and subtraction sums, even before he joined school, by watching his elder brother Chandandeep Singh @Honey.
“If we ever scolded Honey, he would take up for his brother….”That’s the kind of boy we lost ..How can we be at peace, knowing that he is still ‘alive’ somewhere?
How do you know that ? …The mother answered quietly ,” Every astrologer we approached, said he is alive and well’ .

Joining in with his wife, the father said, “So much so, that I studied astrology as a 2-year degree course started in a local college and topped the exam. Other than indicating that he is alive and well I could read nothing more in Giandeep’s birth charts, it did not give me any other clue’, he lamented. The kidnappers could have left him in a train bogey, or a street in any city …we don’t know. But we know he is alive.

MUKH VAK
Dr Hardeep suddenly rushed in and came up with an old diary. He pointed out how he had documented every ‘First’ visit of his son to a gurdwara , a dear friend’s Suman Sharma’s place who stood with him through the thick and thin of looking for Giandeep . Not only this, he had carefully noted down the ‘MUKH VAK’ (First Verse from Guru Granth Sahib) of the day, of his every first visit in gurdwaras in Tarn Taran, Mohali (Nanke ), Goindwal (where he was born), Chandigarh, .
When he was born and the first time we went to a Gurdwara with him, the VAK was —
“Tum daate Thakur pritpalak nayak khasm hamare
Nimak nimak tum hi pritpalo hum baarik tumre Dhare “.

It is strange and an irony , that I suspect the family of my aunt, to have a hand in this kidnap. The aunt alongside whom I prayed for a child and who remained childless for a long time, until at a place of worship I was chosen as an ideal family member to tie the ‘maanat mauli’ (sacred thread). Soon after, she (my aunt) bore her first son, followed by the birth of a daughter. I suspected this very son of my aunt and his friends kidnapped my child. And what a harsh stroke of fate that this very son of my aunt died in a traumatic incident of drowning a few years back .….

WE WILL LOOK FOR HIM ..WE WILL FIND HIM ….. was all we could say…..

Amritsar:emergency contraceptive pills?..think again

For
Headlines Today

Gynecologists sound caution to women resorting to “emergency contraceptive pills” to prevent unwanted pregnancy

By Rashmi Talwar

Amritsar April 7, 2008 —————-

Men and women who practice unsafe sex and then resort to the “emergency contraceptive pills” to prevent unwanted pregnancies need to be aware of certain counter effects of using the “pill’ .

Vigorously marketed by some pharmaceutical companies that claim its cent percent success, the “pill” is far from safe as noted by some gynecologists in Amritsar.
Several cases have been reported in the city where woman were found to have developed “Ectopic” pregnancy post usage of these pills . The ‘Ectopic’ pregnancy is when the pregnancy takes place other than the uterus. Most commonly these pregnancies can take place in the fallopian tubes besides other areas could be ovaries, cervix or even abdomen and can be fatal for mother.
A gynecologist of the city requesting anonymity revealed that at least three patients had come to her for treatment in the past 3-4 months with severe abdominal pain. When tested it was found that they had ‘Ectopic’ pregnancies and surprisingly all three had been consuming the ’emergency contraceptive pill’.
“Their pregnancy occurred in the fallopian tube and caused severe pain in the abdomen with bleeding . The condition is life threatening as contrary to pregnancy in uterus as the most natural environment for the foetus, the egg fertilizes and is implanted in the fallopian tube of the patient”, the gynecologist added
Another gynecologist explained that as per medical reports the movement of the ovum or the egg is controlled by natural hormones. The pill is targeted to change the natural balance and course of hormones that serves to control the ‘unwanted’ pregnancy. However the pill is also known to be causing imbalance in hormones leading to unnatural changes that have resulted in ‘Ectopic’ pregnancies. Undetected or ignored cases of Ectopic pregnancies may lead to rupture of the tube internally causing death, the doctor contended.

The gynecologist who dealt with three such cases in a private hospital of the city said “when some patients came to me with severe abdominal pain their ultrasound proved the presence of the foetus in the fallopian tube. Subsequently a number of such cases have been recorded in the city wherein patient had felt safe in the knowledge of having taken the emergency contraceptive pill to prevent pregnancy but have landed in a serious situation”.
She advised that companies advertising such pills should be asked to fully inform the patient about the effects of the pill and possible outcomes through wrapper information or in the advertisements to help them make a sound decision on its usage.
“But vested interests play a pivotal role in keeping this information under wraps thereby putting under threat the lives of women users ” she added . Amongst the most common symptoms recorded by some doctors for the presence of Ectopic pregnancies could be a missed period, symptoms during actual pregnancy , abnormal bleeding, pain in the lower abdomen or the pelvis. …………..eom

Rashmi Talwar
Email : rashmitalwar@gmail.com

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