BIHAR: Service to man is service to God’ -- with this motto, Dr Gaurav Mishra, a resident of Bihar’s Rohtas district, treats patients at his Saguna Mor clinic in Patna free of cost on every Tuesday. If required, he even conducts surgery free of cost.
Posted as a surgeon at Anugrah Narain Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH) in Gaya Ji city, 41-year-old Mishra visits remote areas to provide free treatment to poor patients at medical camps. He goes to his ancestral village Durgadih in Rohtas to provide free medical advice and medicines.
“For me, it has now become a routine affair. I leave Patna or Gaya Ji early in the morning on Sundays, meet patients and give them medical advice. On an average, 20-30 patients reach my home at Durgadih village every Sunday and wait for me,” he added.
A urologist, Dr Mishra does not forget to carry uroflowmetry machines in his car and emergency drugs wherever he goes. “There have been occasions when I had to provide treatment to patients on the spot. This all depends on the urgency of patients,” he said.
Dr Mishra has conducted more than 200 surgeries and treated 20,000 to 25,000 outdoor patients in the last 11 years. So far, more than one lakh patients have got free medical advice at his clinic and medical camps organised in villages at short intervals.
“It gives me immense pleasure when patients thank me after getting well without spending a single penny. Their blessings encourage me to continue my service to suffering people,” he said.
The journey started when he had to wait long queues for his mother’s kideny ailment treatment. That was when he decided to become a doctor and provide free care, which was also his mother’s wish. He then proceeded to obtain MBBS and master’s degrees from the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).
A gold medalist in Master of Surgery (MS) from PMCH and Master of Cherurgiae (M Ch) from IGIMS, Patna, Dr Mishra initially worked as an assistant professor at AIIMS-Patna. He was appointed as a surgeon in department of urology at ANMCH, Gaya Ji, through the Bihar Public Service Commission. But he was not satisfied with providing medical advice to patients only at the government facility.
“You can well imagine how a village lad, born in a farmer’s family and assisting his father in his agricultural work, got selected in the medical entrance examination with seventh rank,” he said recalling the ups and downs of his life. Dr Mishra does not hesitate to call his doctor friends working at AIIMS-Delhi or other reputed medical institutes across the country if his patients need further treatment. “This is a way of extending help to the poor patients,” he said.
Praising Dr Mishra for his free service, Sanjay Choudhary, 45, a resident of Bikramganj block in Rohtas, said, “People adore him like a god. He is so simple and humble even after being successful in his career (as a doctor). People appreciate his noble work for the suffering people.”