Auxiliary nurse turns messiah for tribals

Bhadrachalam: Bhhatupally Rajeswari is like any health worker associated with several hundred health centres spread across the State. But she is known across the Agency area only for her determination to help people in distress.

People call her savior, as she is always ready to save lives and help villagers in the dark of the night when even close relatives and neighbours avoid venturing out of their homes.  

Bhhatupally Rajeswari is a contract employee in the Health department. She works as a second Auxiliary Nurse Midwife( ANM ) at Charala Mandal  Kurnapally  Health center, under the Satyanarayanapuram Primary Health Center(PHC) under the Bhadrachalam division of Bhadradri- Kothagudem district.

She is a well know person among the residents of nine villages under limits of her health centre.  She serves villagers any time and she also saved many lives in her short career. She  conducted many awareness programmes on healthcare and changed lives of tribal people.

Every day, she visits nine villages spread across 30 kilometers as part of her duty. She also takes help of her husband, who is also a contract employee in the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA). Now, her name and her photos have gone viral across the State when she saved the life of a pregnant woman. 

Last Tuesday, one such incident occurred in the dense forest area in Bhattigudem which is located in Kurnapally limits. She received a phone call from a pregnant woman’s parents in a village in early hours. She told the patient’s family members to bring the patient to the roadside so that the 108 ambulance could carry the ailing woman to the hospital for treatment. 

But due to lack of the transport facility in that village the patient could not be carried to the ambulance which could reach up to the main road.
After that she made a call to the 108 vehicle and she continued her duties.  Sometime later she received another phone call from the 108 staff. They said, “we are waiting for the patient. Nobody has arrived yet.”

Rajeswari rushed to the village and met the patient’s family.  She observed that the pregnant woman was suffering from labor pains and time had come for delivery.  She conducted delivery with the help of the woman’s parents in her house.  The woman delivered male and female twins. 

She noticed that the condition of the babies was critical because of low weight. Moreover, the health condition of woman was also not good. She suggested that both mother and the babies should be shifted to the hospital for better treatment.  

But the family members, who are the tribal people, were not ready for that. However, Rajeshwari tried and motivated them to shift the mother and babies to hospital medical care.

Butter carrying the woman and babies to the ambulance was not an easy job. Therefore, she suggested to fashion a palanquin(doli or palki) with the help of a cot and ropes. With the help of palanquins the patients, the patients were carried to the 108 ambulance which was stationed ten kilometers away. 

She walked along with the doli for 10 kilometers to reach the ambulance. The ambulance then shifted the patients to the Primary Hospital at Satyanarayanpuram. After observing the condition of the patients, the doctor referred them to the Area Hospital Bhadrachalam for better treatment.

This very incident made her popular in the state.  All the officers and public personalities appreciated Rajeswari for doing good job and saving the lives of patients. 

Appreciating her dedication, one villager observed that her duty was over when the woman had given birth to the twins. But motivating the parents to shift the patients to the hospital and travelling 10 kilometers to reach the ambulance, left people pleasantly surprised. Can anybody go extra mile to help people, they observed.

Her photos and news have gone viral on social media and everybody appreciates her selfless service. Speaking to the Hand Indida, Rajeswari said, “it is a very happy moment in her life that people  appreciated her service.” “Daily we cover nearly 30 kilometers as part of the job in nine villages. I come across such kind of incidents regularly in the Agency area and try my best to help people to tide over such problems, she added.