M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Sept 2: Shankar Musahar (60) of the Murumatu hamlet under Pandu police station, now in the news for the alleged raw treatment meted out to them by the minority community, was admitted to the Medinirai Medical College and Hospital, Daltonganj after complaints about extreme weaknesses, anxiety and cough.
On the basis of X-ray reports of his lungs at MMCH, he was found suffering from extensive Tuberculosis in both lungs. Later, he was referred to RIMS Ranchi on Thursday evening for better treatment where he has been admitted to the ENT department and is being treated by Dr RK Chaudhary.
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Palamu Civil Surgeon Dr John F Kennedy speaking to lagatar24.com late last night said, “Shankar had complaints of extreme weaknesses and anxiety. He was first taken to Bishrampur community health centre from where he was referred to MMCH Daltonganj. He was admitted here on Aug 31 and looked emaciated. He asked us for his clothing so we bought him 2 T-shirts and 2 pairs of trousers. We also gave him fruits and bread besides meals that come to the indoor patients.”
“As he was coughing and his speech was fragmented with low pitch sound, I directed for an X-ray and found that both of his lungs had extensive TB infection. It was a bilateral TB infestation,” recalled Dr Kennedy.
The Superintendent of MMCH Daltonganj Dr Dilip Kumar Singh set up a 5-member medical board on September 1 comprising D K Jha (medicine), Dharmender Kumar (eye surgeon), R D Nagesh (surgeon) R K Ranjan (physician) and A Minz (ENT) for a 24×7 observation of Shankar with health bulletin to be issued every day.
Dr Dilip told this correspondent today “The medical board had suspected Shankar to be a case of progressive dysphagia too where either peptic stricture or oesophagal cancer has to be ruled out and hence his referring to RIMS Ranchi is legitimate.”
Meanwhile, civil surgeon Dr Kennedy said the medical board examined Shankar and suggested endoscopy and punch biopsy and other tests, facilities for which are not at MMCH.
However, Shankar was reluctant to go to RIMS Ranchi, pressing the doctors of the MMCH Daltonganj to send him back to his lot of the Musahars of Murumatu village.
“It took our team 3 hours to get him ready to go to RIMS Ranchi and then he was rushed there by ambulance late in the evening of Thursday,” the CS said.
He further said he would be in touch with the RIMS authority regarding his health.
One of the 5 medical board doctors R K Ranjan told this correspondent that he met Palamu DC Anjaneyulu Dodde and apprised him of the month-long health issue of this Dalit which involved him becoming averse to eating as a result of which he was in a deteriorating state of health. On this, the DC directed Dr Ranjan to take all medical care of Shankar Musahar.
