Tapan Roy
Utmost dedication, devotion and determination of health workers of Kalachhara defied an imminent death of a new born baby. Like a phoenix, the baby, Rithika, woke up from her death bed – kudos to Community Health Officer (CHO) Arindom Deb and ASHA worker Mamata Tripura.
Amidst stark poverty, a couple of Sakbari ADC village burst into joy after realizing that they are set to become parents. A rubber taper by profession, Jibanmohan Tripura took his wife Mari Tripura to Kalachhara Community Health Centre. However, Mari lacked nutritious food and sufficient rest during the gestational period owing to the harsh reality of life.
Upon investigation, it was found that the mother was suffering from Anemia. The mother received all the facilities during her gestational period under the Antenatal Care (ANC) of Government health schemes.
After 3rd round of ANC, Mari’s hemoglobin rose from 7.5gm% to 8.5gm% and her weight from 50kg to 59kg.
On April 28 last, Mari – the first time mother – gave delivery to a baby girl at Kalachhara Hospital during the preterm gestational period (8 months). At the time of birth, the baby weighed only 2.2 kg.
“Soon after discharge from the Hospital, I along with Antimony Tripura (ANM) and Mamata Tripura (ASHA) visited the house of Mari Tripura and found that the baby was running a temperature. Importantly, the weight of the baby was reduced to 1.9kg. Baby’s sucking breast milk reflexes were weak. This complicated the situation”, CHO Arindom Deb said.
Following the Government of India’s Home Based New Born Care (HBNC), the CHO with the help of Antimony Tripura and Mamata Tripura embarked on an arduous battle to save the baby who was fast losing her weight and as a result became too weak to suck breast milk.
However, Condition of the baby continued to deteriorate as body temperature was as high as 104 deg F. Sensing the imminent danger, Deb took the baby to Kalachhara Hospital – but the in-charge Doctor referred the critically ill baby to Santirbazar District Hospital. However, Jibanmohan is too poor to afford the cost of taking the baby to Santirbazar and treating her there. So Jibanmohan along with his wife Mari and ailing Rithika returned to their Sakbari village.
The CHO and his team started visiting the house regularly. They applied their knowledge and experiences of HBNC on the baby in a desperate move.
Even as Mari and her husband lost all hopes, Deb and his team decided to continue the battle. Without any modern medical instruments and facilities, they had nothing but HBNC only to save the baby.
Notably, the concept of HBNC was first introduced by Dr Abhoy Bhang and his wife Dr Rani Bhang at Gadchiroli district in Maharastra which experienced high IMR. After the introduction of HBNC, the IMR reduced significantly. Later, the Government of India adopted the process and named it Home Based New Born Care (HBNC).
Deb and his team were so desperate to save Rithika that the ASHA worker decided to stay back at the house of Mari to express the breast milk and feed the baby with a spoon. Within a couple of days, things started to improve slowly.
Regular monitoring by Arindom Deb and care of the ASHA worker Mamata Tripura, Rithika overcame the hurdles and now she is greeting all with a serene smile.
CHO Arindom Deb said, “With a weight of 2.750 kg, the baby is no longer in danger. She is playful now”. Mari and other family members urged the CHO to name the baby – and thus ‘Rithika’ was reborn.
Sighting a relief and exuding happiness, both MHO Arinadom DEb and Mamata Tripura said it is good to see that indigenous people of Tripura is avoiding the quacks and instead relying on the health workers and medical staffs for their physical wellness. This is certainly a noticeable shift in their mental setup, Deb and Tripura concluded.
#Tapan Roy may be contacted at roytapan881@gmail.com
