A Rotary medical mission in Jammu
Mithila Devi Gupta, an elderly Hindu woman, was supposed to undergo gallbladder surgery in Bhaderwah, a town in Jammu district of Kashmir. She was in excruciating pain for almost three years due to gallstones. The days passed by but she wasn’t wheeled into the theatre. PDG Girish Gune, a general surgeon, inquired where the woman was. Someone replied “She has been told to go home.”
An elderly OT assistant Iqbal Mohammad said, “She and her daughter cannot go home now. They live far away up on a mountain. She must be in the town. I will find her.” He went round the small town and the woman was brought back and operated upon by Dr Girish the next day. The daughter’s eyes were filled with tears. She said “Had I gone home, we would have never returned. My mother would have died of the pain and disease. Shukriya (thanks), you are real angels.”
This is just one of the innumerable success stories of the recent mega surgical project in Kishtwar, Bhaderwah and Doda towns of Jammu region. RI Districts 3132 and 3131 have been jointly organising surgical camps in Jammu and Kashmir since 2022. The host district 3070 has always been cooperative. These projects are done with full cooperation of the state government and are called joint projects of Rotary and the UT government. The first project was done in the North Kashmir districts, namely Kupwara, Baramulla, Sopore and Ganderbal.
It was done post-Covid, hence plenty of patients were waiting for various types of surgery. During the formal inauguration of the project in Sopore, UT Lt Governor Manoj Sinha appealed to Rotary to do a similar project in South Kashmir. Thus, a year later, we were back in Kashmir to hold surgical camps at Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam. The camps were a success, hence we were once again advised to go to Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu. This project was done in Feb 2024. It was bitterly cold in these sensitive districts bordering Pakistan, yet our surgeons worked hard to make them a success.
In all the four projects done since 2022, Rotary and the UT government doctors have together performed around 10,000 surgeries in multiple specialties.
The planning of the current project started three months earlier. Along with PDGs Dr Girish Gune, Dushyant Choudhary and Rtn Adeep Mehta, I had several virtual meetings with senior government health officials including director of Health Services Dr Zargar Hamid, Choudhary and Adeep; personally went to Doda and Kishtwar to check the facilities, met the district collectors, medical superintendents and development officers for a spot study.
The government has always been proactive. On our request they spruce up the OTs, create additional OTs by relocating some equipment, operating microscopes and laparoscopy machines to the project sites. They also deputed additional doctors, OT staff and nurses from other hospitals to the project sites.
The J&K government is always proactive. They spruce up the OTs, create additional OTs by relocating some equipment, operating microscopes and laparoscopy machines to the project sites.
On our part, Girish and I started forming the team of doctors and volunteers (self-financed) not only from our two districts but also from the host district. PDG Dr S Sundararajan, an orthopaedic surgeon from Coimbatore, has been in the team since the last project. Dr Deepak Leuva, a veteran ENT surgeon of our projects in India and Africa joined us too. PDG Dr Upinder Singh of RID 3070 has always been active. PDGs Ravindra Salunkhe and Kishore Pawade of RID 3132 joined as volunteers. PRID Dr Mahesh Kotbagi also joined the team.
Thus, a team of general surgeons, gynaecologists, ophthalmologists, ENT, plastic surgeons, urologists, orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthesiologists and volunteers including DRR of RIDs 3131 and 3070 formed a formidable team of 41 Rotarians willing to give their time and skills to serve humanity.
While searching for information on Bhaderwah, Doda and Kishtwar areas, I realised that all these places are in mountainous terrain at a height of 5,400 to 5,600 feet. Bhaderwah is known as little Kashmir. No wonder the thick forests, hills, valleys, distant snow-capped mountains and the gushing Chenab River deep in the valley formed a picture-perfect place to work in.
The road from Jammu to Bhaderwah and Kishtwar was up and down the treacherous ghats and seemed never ending. Anyway, the weather was enchanting till it started raining and the hail storms brought the temperature down to 3–4 deg Celsius.
The workload was heavy. Gallstone is a major issue in Kashmir, hence our surgeons were doing 8–10 laparoscopic surgeries a day, in both Kishtwar and Bhaderwah. Dr Jalbaji More and Girish did multiple gallbladder surgeries in a single day.
Similarly, surgeries for removal of uterus were plenty. Dr Sakhare, Dr Manisha Jagtap and Dr Shivani Agrawal were kept really busy. As expected, there were 30–40 patients per day lined up for cataract surgeries at both the places. Our anesthesiologists Manjusha Khandagale and Neha Panse were confident of giving spinal anaesthesia for gallbladder cases as equipment for general sedation was in short supply. But they did some jugad and managed!
Doda has a government medical college, hence only plastic surgery, ENT, urological and complex orthopaedic surgeries were done there. Dr Anil Sakhare travelled to Doda from Kishtwar for teaching laparoscopic uterine surgeries. PDG Subodh Joshi took care of the team in Kishtwar, while PDG Choudhary coordinated with all the teams from Bhaderwah. He had to do a mind-boggling task of shifting doctors, vehicles and patients from one centre to another every day.
On the last day, the terrible incident at Pahalgam happened and we were told not to leave our guest houses.
PDG Gune is an outstanding surgeon. This humble and caring human being was always the last to leave the OT after serving the needs of every patient. The ophthalmology team of Rahul Phase, Manoj Bhyagude, Ankur Goel, Rajesh Pawar, Anand Khadke and Rajneet Doda were kept busy throughout. Dr Uma Pradhan coordinated their work. D N Sharma, chairman of the Udhampur Eye Hospital, who is a Rotarian, is always ready to bring his team to the remote areas of Kashmir.
The hospital staff, nurses walked miles to help patients and doctors. They worked till late at night. The hospital superintendents Dr Mohammed Ashraf and his colleagues stayed put in their room for coordination.
The patients came from far off mountains and valleys. They would not have received medical care, but for this Rotary medical mission, thanks to logistics extended by the state government. Many were thankful to Rotary for giving them a new life. In this project, many lives were saved, people were freed of their excruciating pain and discomfort, and the blind could once again see their beautiful valleys.
The last day of the project was shockingly different. We were told about the terrible incident at Pahalgam (April 22). Our surgeons completed their OT schedules but were told not to leave their guest houses. The doors of Kishtwar and Bhaderwah guest houses were closed in the evening. Kishtwar is almost 188km by road to Pahalgam but if one walks across the mountains, it’s not too far away. In fact, the government officials were looking at the possibility of the terrorists hiding in the jungles of Kishtwar.
The Rotary teams were supposed to reach Jammu in government vehicles after breakfast the next day. In the evening, the Kishtwar team was told to leave at 5am and travel out of Doda district before dawn. The Bhaderwah team was told to leave at 6.30am. Kishtwar town was cordoned off at 4am but the authorities allowed the Rotary team to leave. The vehicle in which I was travelling from Bhaderwah, needed to fill up petrol near Doda but while crossing river Chenab, we were stopped and told that Doda town has been closed. Our driver had to convince the security personnel that he would fill up petrol in the retail pump just outside the town. The road to Jammu had less traffic till Udhampur and all the shops and eateries were closed. We all reached Jammu well in time and it was a great relief after the tense night.
The surgical projects are small but meaningful steps towards taking Rotary service to the underserved. It also helps in national integration and sensitising people that Rotary goes where others don’t dare to go and serve. It also demonstrates that the public-private partnership for service is a unique and powerful model to make a meaningful change.
We are ready for our next surgical camp in Kathua district in October 2025!
The writer is a past district governor of RID 3132 and project chair
