Big Cats, Trivandrum Zoo

As is the tradition, we made it to the Trivandrum Zoo this year too. 

Snaps of the big cats at the zoo . . .

I'm sure this is a rare sight . . . 

Visit to Betla

For the last couple of weeks, we had students from the Christian Medical College, Vellore who visited us as part of the Secondary Hospital Posting. 

One of the highlights of their visit was the safari to the Betla National Park. Few snaps they clicked from the visit . . . the snap of the bison is really grand. 

Photocredits - Ittyara Paul

The Wheat Harvest

It was only couple of days back I realised that I had not shared about the yield we got from the cultivation of wheat by System of Wheat Intensification in our campus. 

Few snaps of the threshing process . . . 

About the total yield, we got 31 kilograms from 70 square metres of cultivation. Considering that 1 hectare is 10,000 square metres, we calculated the yield per hectare as 4.4 tonnes per hectare. 

Now, this is very high yield for this region. From casual talk with farmers, they hardly get more than 2 tonnes per hectare. Now, the variety we used was a local variety and there was not much of fertilizers of any form used. Many of our laborers were amazed by the seed size and density. 

Next year, we plan System of Crop Intensification for Ragi (Finger Millet) . . . 

Vaccination of backyard chicken

We, at NJH, got onto a new frontier of community development last Saturday. We got into veterinary care in our surrounding villages. This was done on a pilot basis. 

As we met quite a few of our Self Help Groups and discussed on the best possible intervention which could improve their lives . . . what came up was quite surprising. 

As was mentioned in a previous post, the intervention was to look into vaccination of backyard chicken. 

We went ahead with the mass vaccination . . . Snaps from the exercise. 

We had a very enthusiastic group of medical students from the Christian Medical College, Vellore who had come to visit us as part of their Secondary Hospital Posting. They made our work so easy.

For old timers, we did this in Charwadih village. The process was not easy. 

The villagers told us that the best time for us to do the vaccination would be early morning. We reached at around 5 am. However, all the birds had gone out by then. In the villages, they don't have any separate coops for the fowl. They spend the night along with the families in their homes. 

Therefore, as soon as the family woke up and opened the doors in the morning, the chicken were also out and it was difficult to catch them. 

So, we went back in the evening. It was quite late. The reasoning was that we could do the vaccination when the chicken come back to the houses as soon as the sun sets. 

It worked. 

We vaccinated a total of 250 chicken . . . We pray and hope that they are all now protected from Ranikhet disease (Newcastle disease) which is quite rampant during the harsh summer. 

Rare Poison

May is usually a lean month for the hospital. 2 reasons - - - It is very very hot. It's auspicious wedding season. When patients come to NJH in May, it is only if they are very very sick. Obstetric patients try their best to deliver at home. If they arrive into labour room, it is usually when there is a complication. 

The largely empty Acute Care Unit

Yesterday, there was a little girl, 3 year old PD who reached the hospital unconscious. 

The history was that PD had eaten the seeds of a tree locally called 'Bahera'. She had gone to sleep for the night and then never woke up. It seems that these seeds were usually eaten by children. However, it was well known that one should not consume much of these seeds. It seems that PD had eaten too much. 

Seed brought by the parents for identification

We looked this up. Bahera is Terminalia bellirica. 

After the parents discovered that she could not aroused, they took her to the local Primary Health Centre. She was kept there till the evening after which the parents decided to bring her to NJH. 

On arrival at NJH, PD was gasping and was desaturating. We had got her intubated and she is being mechanically bagged. It is 24 hours since she got admitted. Her pupils are mid-dilated and fixed. She is maintaining saturation.

We're not sure on how to go ahead. 

Please pray for PD. 

Photo blog, May 3, 2014

The histopathology report of the huge ovarian tumour that we operated on couple of weeks back.
We've few friends who have promised to help out with the chemotherapy of this poor lady.
We would need help of some more people . . . 

A langer and her baby through one of the skylights . . .  

A rod cutting machine which was donated by one of our well-wishers.
This job would take about 30 minutes if done manually.
With the machine, the same amount of work takes just about 2 minutes . . . 

The above two snaps - - - vegetables from our farm . . .

One of the water handpumps that we facilitated Living Waters to dig in one of our neighboring villages . . .

An improvised water tumbler in our maintenance department

The setting sun . . .