On Saturday 03 Mar 2012, we visited a medical camp held in Salem.
So, what is the medical camp?
Sankara hospital where I've been working for last 3 weeks is running a medical camp every weekend to rural area of India, proving free eye cares and consultations to locals who are unable to afford medical treatment.
Camp was set up in a temple. We took our shoes off and walked in the temple. First thing I saw was about 100 people sitting on a bench waiting.
Male and female had different queues. The picture on right side is a female queue waiting for a registration.
After the registration, patients are sent to vision testing. Girls wearing sky blue saree are aged between 16 and 18. They are doing internship program to be a nurse specialized for eye care.
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| Patient and Doctor |
I was very impressed of the camp as it was well organized. All the patients will go through Registration -> Vision Testing -> Eye Doctor -> General Fitness -> Consultation.
Today, over 100 people visited the camp.
67 people including 1 child were identified as a surgery case.
Those people who identified as a surgery case will be sent to a Sankara hospital for free of cost and will be operated in few days time.
There was only one doctor in the camp. He was 24 years old looking after all the patients. The young doctor was telling me, it is not a easy job but it's also been a great experience for him. He will come across very rare conditions he doesn't normally see working in a city.
Sai Baba volunteer group was helping to set up a camp.
I met a 18 years girl from Sai Baba group. She was telling me, she grew up in Baba's school and that's how she learned speaking English. Now she wants to help as much as she can just like she was helped by the Baba's group to be able to go to a school.
She was really passionate about philosophy of Baba and wanted to give me her Baba's book which means everything to her life.
It was so nice of her but I couldn't accept the book. I know there will be other people who really need that book. I try to explain politely, hope she understood what I mean and I didn't make her feel bad.
Some of the patients are very friendly, even I couldn't speak Tamil, they wanted to talk to me.
It was another memorable day that I will never forget. Something I don't see and feel in my normal life.
Hoping for all the patients that after having a surgery, they can see the light.
