44-yr-old in need of dialysis rescued from flood-hit village

Nagpur: A 44-year-old renal failure patient, in need to undergo dialysis urgently, was rescued from a flood-hit village in Gadchiroli before being ferried by a boat to be able to reach hospital for the procedure in the rain-battered backward district on Monday.
Around 25 roads, including the one between Gadchiroli-Chamorshi, were closed due to heavy flooding across the district where an orange alert was sounded by the Regional Meteorological Centre on Monday. The district has received 107.8 mm rainfall (a single metre square receiving 107.8 litres of rain) in the last 24 hours.
All major rivers in the district including Godavari, Pranhita, Indravati, Wardha and Wainganga were flowing close to the danger mark till filing of this report.
According to sources, a resident of Hirapur village Anandrao Meshram, also suffering from anaemia, had missed dialysis procedure and was having his stomach swollen.
A call to Gadchiroli district hospital had revealed that the dialysis could take place only till 3pm, but there was no way Meshram could reach there as his village was cut off from outside world due to floods. Gadchiroli-Chormshi road was flooded due to overflowing Shivni nullah, while swollen Potfodi river in the vicinity had further aggravated the scenario.
Tehsildar Mahendra Ganwir told TOI that Hirapur sarpanch (village headman) had called him up at around 9am informing about Meshram’s condition. “When the call came, we were trying to rescue an ambulance driver (Yeshwant Kamble) and his cleaner (Vaibhav Nandeshwar), who were stranded while returning from Rannmool village,” said Ganwir. After district administration’s disaster management team and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) managed to rescue the duo, we diverted attention towards Meshram, he said.
Ganwir said Meshram, with the help of his relatives and locals, had managed to reach up to Shivni village, but road ahead was closed. “We immediately fetched a boat from the SDRF and disaster management team. Meshram was picked up from Shivni. We had kept an ambulance ready. The patient was rushed to Gadchiroli where he was admitted to hospital in time,” said the tehsildar, who was accompanied by local police station staff, tehsil health officer Dr Sunil Madavi, district health officer Dr Dawal Salve and others.
Meanwhile, all major roads in the district including Pendhri-Pakhanjur, Sironcha-Kaleshwaram, Bhamragarh-Laheri-Beenagunda, Alapalli-Bhamragarh remained closed on Monday. On some roads, only light vehicles were allowed.
Police personnel were deployed across the district to deter overzealous public from going to flood points and overflowing rivers for casual visits. District administration has also warned citizens against posing for selfie near the flood points or overflowing rivers.