Covering Wayanad medically. Day 2 at Panamaram.

Had got up at 6, gone through the chores and was ready by 9, to have breakfast with the entire team at our premises. Earlier, in the night, Maman had taken a tumble in the darkness of our room as he tried to make his way into the rest room. However, it didn't create too much of a difficulty. We were off to the venue by about a quarter past 10 and the programme had kicked off, exactly, at a half past 10.

After the formal inauguration followed by the explanation of the conduct of the camp, the proceedings had begun in right earnest. The initial melee had to be sorted out and I was given the task of streamlining it as it had to be accomplished without antagonising the people awaiting the medical check up. The stages were as follows:-

    (a) The registration counter was functioning smoothly where Indira ma'am filled up the personal                particulars of each individual. We'd decided to give the prescription chits a 'Foundation's touch'
          by having a masthead with PN Panicker's facial caricature on the top, along with, our address.
          The essential details were listed down with the column for the doctor's prognosis coming at the
          end. Indira ma'am and Shyamala manned this point and the serial numbers for each individual
          were issued.
    (b) At the sizing up counter, Ashna had to record the blood pressure and the weight of each
          individual and note the readings on the prescription chit. Since the crowd was getting bigger at
          this counter, Bindu was also tasked to take down the BP readings and things were brought
          under control.
    (c) The clinical inspection was done by doctors Pankaj Srivastava and Kavya and they went about
          their task systematically. It was ensured that there wasn't any bunching up of patients around
          them.
    (d) The next counter was the 'medicine distribution point', which was manned efficiently by Sofia.
    (e) The youngsters of the youth club manned the blanket distribution counter.

There were quite a few adivasi women who had come for their check up in today's medical camp and the numbers totaled up to 153, in the end and we went for lunch at a half past 3.

Pankaj ji's observations about the state of the health by virtue of today's cases were:-

    (a) There were no serious ailments in anybody.
    (b) There were a lot many ENT cases because of having spent excess time in the flood waters as
          relief took time to reach them. The ears had shipped in a lot of water causing infection.
    (c) There were 'no admittable disease in a few' but they were in a psychological trauma caused by
          the overwhelming nature of the emergency.
    (d) Satisfied with the medical health care adopted by the health workers.

We wound up by a half past 4, to visit the Banasurasagar dam across the River Kabini. I'd heard a lot about this dam's four shutters being opened untimely at the time of the deluge. They were opened during the night hours and without adequate warning - two don'ts that should never have been followed as per the manual. The result was that the whole of Palakkad town got flooded within no time. The flip side was that the outlet side of the dam was bone dry, resembling a near drought situation staring at the surroundings!

We're back in the Inspection Bungalow and had a debrief of sorts and went out again, as a big gang, for our supper at the Indian Coffee House around 2000 hrs. Came back and had another round of discussions before calling it a day.


Tailpiece.

1. Tomorrow is gonna be a long day as we begin the day with visits to the Thirunelli and the Thrissalerry temples at 7 AM.
2. We shall be on our return trip after the conduct of the camp.