Memorabilia - Golden Jubilee NJH

As part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, we arranged for the production of some memorablia for our guests and well-wishers. Kindly contact me if you would like to have any of them. And please do it soon, as there are only very few items left.

1. Drinking mug: Imported German ceramic mugs with the NJH logo and a scenary of the campus with the chapel imprinted.


2. Traditional Jharkhand tribal shawl: Made in Mahuadand with NJH imprinted on it.

3. Calendars 2012: We have both table calendars (Hindi) as well as wall calendars (English).

You can order a set of 10 table calendars (English) for a suggested donation of Rs. 1000 in India. For countries abroad the suggested donation for a set of 10 calendars is 100 USD. Sending the Hindi wall calendars by post/courier especially to countries abroad would be difficult as they are a bit on the larger side.

Since few of us would be travelling to Bhopal, Delhi, Chennai and Kerala within the next month, please do put in your requirements as it would be easier to send them to you.

The True Knot

As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, it has been quite busy although on another side we were quite busy celebrating the Golden Jubilee.

We had a very sad story of PD - who came with one of the most terriblest obstructed labours with an alive baby. We have seen many an obstructed labour where the baby is dead and it is easy to take a decision to do a craniotomy and deliver the fetus.

PD's case was quite different. It was quite apparent that she had recieved intramuscular oxytocin injections. The fetal head was quite firmly wedged into the pelvic outlet. In addition, she was subjected to multiple per vaginal examinations as well as attempts to somehow deliver the baby normally, because of which there was enormous edema of the vulva and the vaginal wall.

Initially, we could not hear the Fetal Heart. Later, after ultrasound, we could localise the fetal heart quite well and it was going quite strong. And we made a decision to operate to deliver the baby. I decided to take it out as breech since the head was quite deep stuck into the pelvis.

The surgery turned out to be a nightmare. The head was really wedged into the pelvis. And to top it all, there was a true knot in the umblical cord which was almost tight. I wonder how the baby had stayed alive all this time.

The baby came out quite sick and I was wondering if I had made a right decision to do a Cesarian section on the mother. I was quite tired after the preparations for the Golden Jubilee. Dr Nandamani had done a good job resuscitating the baby.

Unfortunately, he was becoming sick after he reached the nursery and I was definite that it would be quite a big ask on us to manage him. We tried our best to refer to Ranchi, but to no avail. The family was quite poor.

I wonder what the problem was  - but my weary grey cells have not been able to think much. The baby is still alive - but he has got hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. In addition, he has got a positive sun-set sign in his eyes. Most probably, he had a intracranial hemarrhage following trauma of having got his head wedged and later disimpacted during the process of delivery.

The question is on the rationale of doing Cesarian section when there has been quite a lot of trauma on the fetus. But, here, PD was in labour for only 6 hours before she reached NJH. What could have been avoided are the intramuscular pitocin injections which she recieved from the traditional midwife in her village.

However, she is lucky to have an intact uterus. Few of my patients have not been very lucky. At least I appreciate that her relatives realised there was some problem within 6 hours of the process of labour.

Golden Jubilee CME

One of the new ventures we attempted as part of the Golden Jubilee was a Continuing Medical Education programme for doctors in Daltonganj. All the credit for suggesting the same goes to Dr Philip Finny, Consultant Endocrinologist from our sister hospital in Raxaul, Bihar State. 

We were quite encouraged by the enthusiastic response from the Indian Medical Association officebearers at Daltonganj. A total of about 40 doctors attended the CME which was on Diabetes Mellitus.

We look forward to more sessions of CMEs along with the doctors at Daltonganj.

GJ Celebrations - The Non Contact Tonometer

The second part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations on the 28th October comprised of the inauguration of the Non-Contact Tonometer in the Ophthalmology Department by Dr Mark Kniss.

The purchase of the machine was facilitated by the kind donation from the families of Mrs Betty Goodwin and Mrs Ivy Kerr of the Cambray Baptist Church, Cheltenham, United Kingdom. We acknowledge the role played by Dr Colin Binks, our former surgeon, in chanelising the funds to NJH.

We are very much appreciative of this donation and pray that it would be a blessing to the patients who visit our ophthalmology department.

Golden Jubilee - Day 1

Apologies for posting this late. We've had a very busy and exciting week.

The celebrations went off quite well. We thank the Lord for all the blessings we enjoyed during the week.

The programme on the first day was for the local community. We had invited the newly elected Panchayat Raj leaders, Sahiyas (ASHA), DOTS Providers and other community leaders.

The chief guests were the Civil Surgeons of Palamu and Latehar. We had also invited the other healthcare officials. Unfortunately, due to unnavoidable reasons, none of the officials were able to make it to the function.

The best part of the programme was the torch relay started by Dr Pradhan and passed on to the present unit leadership who ultimately gave it to Dr Mark Kniss who lit up a fire cauldron symbolising the start of the function.

Following the ceremony of the torch lighting, I welcomed the audience as well as gave a brief report on the activities of the hospital.

The next part involved Dr Mark Kniss thanking all those in the local community who helped him with the efforts in starting Nav Jivan Hospital. One of the community leaders, Mr. Bhola Prasad represented the community in thanking Dr Mark Kniss for the efforts he took in establishing the hospital.

The meeting was well attended. We were quite glad that quite a number of the Panchayati Raj elected members, Sahiyaas and DOTS Providers attended the meeting.

The meeting closed with prayers and was immediately followed by a sumptous lunch. A section of the audience along with the staff later proceeded to the ophthalmology department for the inauguration of the Non Touch Tonometer. More on that in the next post.