Spreading Smiles.. Free Medical Camp: Vol 2.0
Morning prayers
with the Father of St Anthony's chapel, New Thippasandra post, Bangalore
replaced the intros; while the BTC Rules that generally follow the intros were
replaced by a brief training in using the BP machine (digital of course),
calculating BMI, reading prescriptions (thanks docs for the very legible
handwriting), giving out medicines and making people understand the dosage of
the same. Basically a crash course to spread smiles with a little help from
doctors.
So, once we set
the registration counter, the BP-BMI desk, the doctor’s tables and the medicine
corner in the rear part of the church, it was half a day of almost non-stop work
that we were all assigned.
While the
doctors: Avinash, Deepthy, Praveen, Rohith and Sneha did the mind blowing 321
check-ups in half a day, like it was a just another day in office; Assistance
from Ambika, Ashish, Francis, Nelson and Surya Kiran made the job look like a
cake walk as they ran from pillar to post to assist both: the group of doctors
and the volunteers, bridging the gap between biology and mathematics (doctors
and engineers).
The doctors on
one hand, were doing what they normally do: Check-ups; while the volunteers on
the other hand were a tad bit sceptical of checking BP, reading prescriptions,
handing out medicines in the beginning. Though owing to the support and
guidance from doctors, they gained enough confidence to proudly remark: “felt
like a doctor” at the end of the event.
This was about those
who made the camp a success. Though we have no words to say about those, for
whom the camp was organised. Being part of an event to bring smiles to over 300
odd faces, ranging from 10 months to 95 years, it’s not an experience to be
scripted, it’s a feeling to be felt, a memory to be cherished. And the charming
smile from a 65 year old lady when you confirm she is fit and fine, you are
sure to remember it for a long-long time. Not to forget the contagious “EEEEEE”
smiles we got from kids, their eyes sparkling at the sight of chocolates.
Many of us suffer
from what kids call, “inject-o-phobia”, basically the fear of injections,
nothing new. So, here was this little boy who wailed at the top of his voice at
the mere mention of “inj”, and his father, who couldn’t resist teasing him time
and again. In fact, this duo kept playing that game tirelessly till we left.
There were many who got injected for the first time ever, hence shedding a tear
or 2. Otherwise, it was all smiles, everywhere, all through the day.
All these
moments were captured beautifully by Sandeep, who tirelessly kept clicking till
the end of the event. The job of recording the physical data (height, weight
& BP) before the check-up was taken by Smitha and Ashish; Sucheta and Ritu
were the pharmacist of the day; In other side roles were Juby: the baby sitter;
Mahesh: the translator; Gaurav: the guide and Kamlesh & Ankit, the
receptionists.
A vote of thanks
also goes to the elders from the locality who apart from managing the people
(the church was full of people awaiting their turn), took great care of the
team all through the day; bringing us breakfast and regular tea, coffee, urging
us to take a break for food and even getting a ruler for the registration book.
At the end of it
all, amidst an aura of happiness, under the lights filtering through the
frescoed windows of the church, with blessing from the almighty, sharing the
semi-solid dairymilk that Ankit kept safe the entire day, The group had a “straight-circle” chat, and the smile on
the faces summed it up without any words. It was a true test of the saying:
“A
smile is contagious, let’s see how far we can spread it.”
Today,
we spread it to a locality. Let’s spread it more..
Written By : Ankit Maheswari
Organized By : Dr Deepthy Jagadish
Date of event: 21st Sept 2014
Place : Bangalore
Pictures : BTC FB Page
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