Victims of the recent Kashmir flood will receive state-of-the-art medical aid from the Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM) in Kerala, as two mobile units equipped with health and relief facilities are slated to reach Srinagar tomorrow (Wednesday).The two-bus contingent, which was flagged off from the national capital by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, will tour for about three weeks mostly in Bandipora district that has been hugely affected by the Jhelum floods this monsoon season. The relief comes a fortnight after MAM distributed school kits for children in Udhampur district of the Valley, where the Math would also be constructing houses for people affected by the September floods triggered by torrential rains.The union government has made efforts to support the Math’s Rs 25-crore mission to ensure a coordinated operation, the minister said, hailing Amma — as humanitarian icon and Kerala-headquartered MAM’s founder Mata Amritanandamayi Devi is known world-wide — for her charity activities.“Amma is an ocean of compassion striving for the better of humanity,” he said, before flagging off from India Gate a mobile medical facility and a mobile tele-medicine unit of Kochi-based Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) functioning under MAM, a voluntary organisation with branches across the globe.
The air-conditioned mobile medical units, which have 14 doctors besides paramedical staff, are equipped with two beds, ultra sonography, X-ray radiography, ventilator, minor operation theatre, delivery room facility, electro cardiography, light microscopy, digital photography and bio-chemical testing with a semi-auto analyser for hepatitis-B and rat fever.Led by Dr Puneet Dhar, who heads the gastro-surgery department of 1998-founded AIMS, the team that is travelling from Kerala includes specialists in general medicine, surgery, paediatrics, emergency medicine, dentistry and radiology. At the relief sites in Kashmir, they will provide vaccinations against polio and hepatitis besides facilities such as DPT and MMR. The ambulances can travel to interior places.
With a satellite-based video conferencing facility, AMTU (Amrita mobile tele-medicine unit) is supported by two emergency ambulances with cardiac facilities and medicines. The output from these devices can be transmitted to a speciality hospital (typically AIMS) for expert opinion. It has the capability to connect to any health-care centre that has a tele-medicine facility. It is also equipped with Amrita Health Information System tele-medicine suite for electronically storing and transmitting patient data including medical images. Using all these facilities, expert doctors can directly see the patient, diagnose the disease and start emergency medical management.
Since 2007, AIMS has been rendering free medical care to people hit by natural disasters across the country.In Delhi on Monday, Amma’s volunteers and supporters chanted aloud ‘Mata Amritanandamayi Ki Jai’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ as the two Kashmir-bound vehicles moved out of the premises of the historical monument.Minister Singh was presented with a collage album featuring his recent visit to MAM’s Amritapuri precincts near Kollam during Amma’s 61st birthday celebrations of September 26-27.Earlier, the minister took a round of both the units and interacted with the travelling contingent.