MADURAI: Pandi has been struck by a high-voltage electric shock! Help!” The cries of fellow labourers at the construction site in Sellur, Madurai, faintly brushed through M Pandi’s ears as he struggled to hold onto his senses.
It was just another day in April, 2020. Pandi was 58 years old, and neither his colleagues nor his four daughters could imagine an electrical misfortune could render him vulnerable. Pandi lost four of the fingers on his right hand. What followed him was a tide of financial troubles and despair.
They say not all heroes wear capes. The seven doctors who set up Nethravathi Pain, a palliative care and rehabilitation centre in 2012, for instance, walk around with stethoscopes loosely hanging around their necks and the earpieces tapping rhythmically on the chest. At a point when even Pandi himself seemed to have lost faith in the recovery process, the league of docs entered the scene with their steadfast pledge to serve humanity.
The doctors, learning about the financial troubles pulling the brakes on Pandi’s treatment, provided medical treatments, including physiotherapy, all free of cost. “Not all heroes wear capes,” repeated Pandi in January 2022. All praise to the sterling effects of the treatment, he can now do his day-to-day activities.
The story of Pandi is just one among many. Over the years since its inception in 2012, the Nethravathi centre has attended to the needs of over 200 people who have been, in some way or the other, affected by similar misfortunes.
Functioning from their main centre in Vilachery, Nethravathi has been extending medical and charitable services to the elderly, poor and the destitute with care and compassion as humanitarian add-ons.
Whenever an individual approaches the centre seeking assistance, American educator Booker T Washington’s thought-stirring quote, “the highest test of the civilization of any race is in its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate”, is epitomized.
At Nethravathi, idealism finds its safe abode in medical ethics and humanitarian drives. Dr R Balagurusamy, the managing trustee of the centre, opens up on its beginnings: “After completing post-graduation from Madurai, the seven of us—which includes Dr R Amuthanilavan, Dr S Sabari Manikandan, Dr S Srividya Manjunath, Dr P Venkatesh, Dr Prabhu Ram Niranjan and C Sathish—started working at the Meenakshi Mission hospital in Madurai. After routine work, we used to visit several villages in the city and provide free medical services through camps.”
During one such medical visit, they came across a person in Kodikulam, who was suffering from skin cancer. He inspired a spark in them to contribute significantly to society.What started off as a modest project at a rented building in Kadachanenthal with a total of 10 patients and an initial investment of Rs 3 lakh later thrived into a full-fletched medical establishment. Sheer dedication it is, confirms the doctors.
However, obstacles awaited them in their forward movement, and the Nethravathi team had to shift their functioning from the rented building. “A retired couple got to know about the situation and they donated 27 cents of their land in Vilachery for the construction of a new building for the centre,” recalls Dr Balagurusamy.
Such donations and generous contributions are the lifelines for the organisation, says Dr R Amuthanilavan, the Financial Trustee. “The number of elderly people being abandoned has been increasing and our primary aim is to create awareness among the citizens to take care of their elderly parents. At present, we give special attention and care to such persons who require medical assistance. Around Rs 6 lakh is needed every month to run the centre and donations keep us moving forward without faltering,” he adds.