ALAPPUZHA: The August deluge which devastated the state is a debatable issue after the Amicus Curiae submitted a report in the High Court, stating the flood was a man-made one. Meanwhile, a noble gesture by a medical team from Kuttanad during the flood period was accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A snapshot of giving medicine to a new-born in a flooded house, taken by a junior health inspector of Edathua Community Health Centre (CHC), is a calendar picture of this year. The medical team giving medicine to a fever-affected four-month-old baby in a remote flooded island has become the icon of the helping hand of the Kerala Health Department. According to ML Sreejin, junior health inspector, my snap, showing administering medicine to the baby at Changamkari was accredited by the WHO.
“They included the picture in the calendar of the organisation. Alappuzha District Mass Media officer Suja PS helped to get the attention WHO,” he said. “On July 25, 2018, in the first flood, a phone call reached the CHC that a four-month-old baby, the grandchild of Antony, Polackal house, Anjoorupadam, Changamkari, was sick with fever.
They were unable to reach the hospital with the baby, because their home was in an isolated island surrounded by vast paddy fields and the home premises were under knee-deep water.The entire paddy field was also under water. We informed the incident to Dr Sini C Joseph of CHC. The doctor and her team, including nurses CP Santha and PB Indulekha and JHI Shajimon KR, reached the home and treated the child. I took the photo of the doctor examining and giving medicine to the child sitting in a country boat,” Sreejin said.
“The nurses and I are not trained in swimming and we were afraid to travel in a country boat in the paddy field in neck-deep water. Shajimon, who is a native of Edathua, gave us the courage to travel in a country boat and we reached the home and treated the child. Later, we indulged in similar kinds of rescue operations in the following weeks,” Sini said.
Mass Media officer Suja said, “I noticed the picture at the time of preparing the report about the flood relief activities. I presented the picture to Dr Asha Raghavan, consultant of WHO, and she took steps to publish it. They are planning to include the picture in the magazine of WHO,” Suja said.