Nagpur: Dadaji Ramaji Khobragade, who was battling with life after a crippling paralytic stroke he suffered early last month, breathed his last at Search Hospital run by Dr Abhay Bang at Gadchiroli. The end came on Sunday evening, when the last measure treatment being administered failed to keep him alive.
Khobragade had been discharged from a Nagpur hospital on Saturday evening, where he had been shifted from Brahmapuri on May 27. There had been no improvement in his condition. “The doctors at Nagpur said that his condition has not shown much improvement. So we decided to shift him to Search Hospital, since it is closer to our village,” his son Mitrajit told TOI on Sunday morning. Khobragade is a winner of numerous awards for his innovation in the field of paddy farming, and is credited with the invention of HMT variety of rice.
He had been admitted to Kanphade Hospital in Ramdaspeth on May 27, and was under the care of Dr Chandrashekhar Meshram and other doctors. “His condition continued to be critical and did not show any marked improvement. We decided to discharge him when his family expressed a desire to take him to a hospital closer to their home,” Dr Suhas Kanphade said.
On May 18, Khobragade had been admitted to Dr Bharat Ganvir’s hospital at Brahmapuri. “He had suffered a paralytic stroke and both his limbs were paralysed about a fortnight before being brought to our hospital. The family had tried home remedies before taking medical help. He did respond after a couple of days’ treatment as he began recognizing persons, and could speak a little,” Dr Ganvir said. “But he was in a critical state, and I advised the family to shift him to Nagpur or Mumbai for further treatment,” he added.
However, the poor financial condition of the family made cost of treatment prohibitive. “He was suffering from memory loss and his upper and lower limbs were paralysed. The treatment would be expensive, I had told them,” Ganvir said. But as the media picked up the story of the ailing farmer, social organizations began to pitch in. “He commanded a lot of respect as people from different social organizations came to my hospital to give money towards his treatment cost,” Ganvir said.
Moved by the plight of Khobragade, social media marketing consultant Sukhada Chaudhary too began a crowd funding initiative on Facebook and could pull in around Rs7 lakh till June 2. “We had begun the initiative on May 18, and had collected Rs6 lakh in just one week. We extended the window 20 more days, and transferred some of the money into his account to meet medical expenses,” she said. Khobragade’s son says he did receive a message from Chaudhary about Rs5 lakh being transferred but said, “I have not found the time to go to my bank and check personally.”
Expressing her grief and disappointment over the death of the ailing farmer, Chaudhary said the remaining money would also be handed over to the family.
