Old but not abandoned, trust keeps them healthy

Bengaluru: Chandanmal Pukhraj Bothra was disheartened when his mother went blind at the age of 48 after an erroneous glaucoma surgery. He decided to turn this negative experience into something worthwhile for others. “My mother's botched surgery and my father, who was a vaidya or a physician who used to treat people from our area and nearby villages, taught me about the pain that comes with any kind of disease. So I decided to do something for others along these lines,” said Bothra (61), founder of Sri Chandanmal Pukhraj Bothra Trust, which was formed in June 1999 to help needy patients in rural areas.

The Trust was created with a vision of ‘Health for All’. “The trust believes that all human beings have a right to avail qualitative health care, which is easily accessible and affordable. To achieve this we decided to start a charitable medical centre, which would provide all the necessary tests when it came to primary health care,” he said.

This two-room centre was not just brick walls. It had specialist doctors coming in from renowned hospitals in the city to help the ailing geriatric population. “Specialists like Dr Naresh Shetty from MS Ramaiah hospital come every month to check and treat patients,” Bothra said, who adds that a string of such doctors have been helping him conduct these free check-ups and surgeries.

“Our lab does all the basic tests and physiotherapy - free of cost. We have treated some 22,000 patients and of those  many come to us for follow-ups. These people are from the poorer strata of society and many do not even have enough money to buy a bus ticket to our medical centre. Sometimes they walk for 3 kilometres for treatment. And, it is fulfilling to see the smiles on their faces each day”" he said.

The Medical Centre, which was started on July 14, 1999, initially was catering to the day-to-day health needs of the people from surrounding areas by providing free consultation and medicines. Later, it was decided to focus on diabetes, which has now become rampant. It was found that the geriatric population, which constitutes the majority of patients, needs awareness, monitoring and medical management, as this disorder needs life-long medication and supervision at regular intervals. “Which is why a diabetic clinic was started to address the awareness, detection, monitoring and management of diabetes by means of camps, workshops and providing free medicines,” he explained.

The journey of reaching out did not stop just there. In July 2009 the Globe Eye Foundation, founded in the year 1995 by Dr Sundar Ram Shetty in Hoskote, was renamed GEF Eye Hospital and Bothra Institute of Community Ophthalmology, which conducts eye screening camps in small villages all over the state, detects cases like cataract, glaucoma, retinopathy, brings them to the centre and conducts free surgeries. "Last year we conducted some 6,000 free eye surgeries across Karnataka and this year's target is 6,850,” he said with a smile.

Also, the centre and his team are conducting around ten surgeries monthly to select patients based on need and other aspects. These patients are operated upon at huge subsidised rates by doctors at MS Ramaiah and Narayana Heart Centre.

When contacted Dr Naresh Shetty of M S Ramaiah Memorial Hospital said, “I do visit the needy patients twice a month at the Centre and if they require treatment, we get them to MS Ramaiah. Sadly, not many people want to invest in social causes, many would rather spend money to build temples, but not many think about building temples that can relieve pain! There are so many people that require basic healthcare and it can't be just corporates who do it - we all need to pitch in.”