City doctors do their bit for Kodagu flood victims

A team of Bengaluru-based medical professionals hopped in a car and headed to Kodagu last week, where they treated hundreds of people affected by recent flooding.

The most common ailments that they encountered included minor orthopaedic injuries, diarrhoea, cough, cold, fever, and stomach ache.

Many of the patients were already suffering from mental illnesses.

“Most of the patients have psychosomatic disorder. They need counselling,” said Dr Sunil Kumar Hebbi, organiser of the medical relief mission and founder of the social initiative, Matru Siri Foundation.

One such patient, Hebbi explained, had lost her house, cow, and job—her employer’s coffee estate had suffered severe damage. She cried frequently.

Doctors Deepak Vastrad, Harsha Attibele, and Pradeep also participated in the mission, along with Anamika Kumari, who assisted the doctors and offered counselling services.

“They were in a state of shock. Kids were badly affected, the situation led to mental and physical agony and trauma,” Dr Hebbi told the DH. “Our counselling was intended to cheer them up—to make them talk freely with us, thus to be out of panic, bring confidence among them to return to normal life, giving hope to children to go back to school as early as possible. It was great support to women who were shy to come out to express their feelings and personal needs.”

The small crew began their journey last Monday, when they visited three relief camps at government schools in and around Kushalnagar. On Tuesday, they stopped by two camps at Suntikoppa—Saint Mary Church and Jamia Masjid. The doctors visited one more camp at Rudra Layout in Kushalnagara on Wednesday.

While his team arrived armed with hundreds of various medications, Hebbi told DH that their greatest challenge was lack of proper blood sugar medications.