This Malkangiri doctor walks the talk

BHUBANESWAR/MALKANGIRI  : There are no full stops for him. Dr Omkar Hota draws no boundaries for himself either. If Kalahandi’s Dana Majhi walked 12 km carrying his dead wife on the shoulders last year sending the State on a road of infamy for its lack of sensitivity and compassion, this doctor of Malkangiri has reversed the journey.On October 31 (Tuesday), the doctor took an arduous 10 km travel on foot from Sarigeta village in Odisha’s Malkangiri district shouldering a woman who had just delivered a baby and was bleeding so profusely that she was staring at sure death.

The 31-year-old doctor put the woman, Subham Marse, on a cot and ably helped by her husband, the duo trekked for three hours through the inhospitable terrains of Chitrakonda block so that they could reach the nearest public health centre (PHC) at Papulur. After 18 hours of treatment and monitoring, the tribal woman and her new-born were declared out of danger. They are now stable.In one of Odisha’s most backward districts where governance paralysis and Naxalism often grab headlines, Hota’s is a heart-warming story of what human empathy can do. 

But last Tuesday was like another day for Dr Hota, the in-charge medical officer at Papulur PHC (New) where he was attending to patients. At about 1 pm, he got a call from a villager seeking his attendance for Subham’s delivery.He set off on a bike to Sarigeta along with his attendant Rama Pangi. Subham was then in severe labour pain.

Though Hota carried out the delivery at the village itself, the woman’s condition deteriorated due to excessive bleeding. She required immediate hospitalisation but when villagers refused to touch her citing tribal traditions, the young doctor decided to shoulder the responsibility himself. Literally. “Any further delay would have been disastrous for the woman. So her husband and myself carried her on a cot while an ASHA worker carried the new born,” he recounted to The New Indian Express over phone from Papulur. 

They managed to reach the PHC (New) before evening.
Post-delivery, the woman had developed Grade III placenta previa, an obstetric complication where the placenta is inserted partially or wholly in the lower uterine segment. “She also had suffered haemorrhages while blood pressure dipped along with pulse rate. Mortality is high in such conditions. Thank God, both mother and child are safe,” he says with a sigh of relief.   
As pictures of Hota walking through the hilly terrains carrying Subham on a cot spread through social media, appreciations poured in. But he is more than happy to have saved the life of a mother and a newborn.

“When the neighbours refused to transport my wife, I had no clue what to do. Had the doctor not taken up the responsibility, I would have lost my wife and baby,” said her husband Sundaray Marse. 
But this is not an one-off act for Hota. Posted since March 31 this year, he has shouldered patients from far off Alurkota, Guralur, Kamalpur, Muraliguda, Kapatuti, Sadre and Sintagunal villages when the need arose.Prior to his posting at Papulur, there was no institutional delivery in the region as no doctor wanted to serve the area due to extreme conditions. But he made it a point to encourage people to go for institutional delivery. So far 25 deliveries have been conducted in the PHC which also doubles up for his quarter.      

Having a population of around 250, Sarigeta is about 70 km from district headquarters Malkanmgiri. Earlier Papulur PHC (New) was under Kalimela CHC, which was 120 km away but now it has been linked to Chitrakonda CHC.     A native of Sahajbahal in Balangir district, Hota had first joined at Sudvela CHC in hos home district after completing his internship in 2016. Such was his commitment for the poor and underprevileged that locals had gheraoed the hospital protesting his transfer. 

The posting in Malkangiri was, however, challenging as there was no drinking water facility, toilet and round-the-clock electricity supply at the PHC. Though the health unit is supplied with an inverter, he used to save the energy for exigencies. He stays in a room inside the hospital as there is no doctor’s quarters. He also makes it point to spend a part of salary on the tribals.
For the work, Hota was awarded as best doctor of the district at the Independence Day celebration on August 15.