While many doctors in India have become highly commercial minded and even mercenary in their approach,here is an example of someone still keeping his values in tact, in spite of his difficulties!! Bravo!
Real Hero: doctor who charges Rs 5 for treatment
PART ONE
Ranchi: Doctor Shyama Prasad Mukherjee has been treating poor patients for a mere Rs five for the last 55 years. He is said to be a medical marvel of a different kind. His consultation charges have helped many poor patients in times of sickness when other doctors and hospitals are too expensive for them.
One such family who have immense respect for Dr Mukherjee is that of Harinandan Singh. Singh, who like every doting father, wanted the best cure for his sick son, but he couldn't afford it. A harsh reality faced by thousands across the country.
Luckily for Singh there was a way out - their doctor Sahib Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who treated Singh's son for just Rs 5.
Dr SP Mukherjee said, "I have learnt that one has to draw a line and to know how much is enough. That's the point that one should look for because if I am the doctor I should have a sympathetic attitude to my patients. Everything cannot be commercial. If I would have liked to become a billionaire or millionaire, I should have taken up some other profession."
Dr Mukherjee, 75-years-old, has been following his professions' Hippocratic oath every single day since 1957.
Perhaps his own personal tragedy holds the key to his selfless service.
He lost his first wife when she was just 29. She died of an incurable disease leaving behind two young daughters. Dr Mukherjee remarried but sadly his second wife is crippled and bed ridden for the last three years.
"So things have been very bad¦ Very very bad all my life. I could have served the people better if my family life could have been better," Dr Mukherjee said.
However, most of his patients are not aware of Dr Mukherjee's personal tragedy, for them his cure is god sent.
"He is like a God for us," said Harinandan Singh.
Dr Mukherjee spends two hours everyday in his Lalpur Pathology Lab. What he earns in the pathology lab helps him give free medicines to patients and treat them for just Rs 5 - an insignificant amount in today's time.
This Rs 5 treatment is what gives his patients the cure and happiness which is priceless, and perhaps in their good will Dr Mukherjee finds a remedy to his life's tragedies.
"When a child suffering from broncho demonia or a child suffering from diarrhea vomiting comes to me in a very precarious condition I treat him. Sometimes I suggest him for hospitalisation but they don't go and subsequently they come back with a smiling child that is my reward and that is my professional fees," added Dr Mukherjee.
-- http://ibnlive.in.com/news/real-hero-doctor-who-charges-rs-5-for-treatment/171491-3.html
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The Good Doctor--- PART TWO
This is not all. Dr. Mukherjee does not even charge extremely poor patients, besides offering them free medicines, which he gets from pharmaceutical companies. Dr Mukherjee also advises his relatively well-off patients, who feel embarrassed in paying just Rs five as his consultancy, to help others. I cannot accept more than Rs 5, he says.
With the clock striking half past ten, Doctor Shyama Prasad Mukherjee settles down at his clinic near Lalpur in Ranchi where he stays till 7.30 PM. These days, the first half is reserved for his pathology laboratory, while he devotes his entire time after lunch attending patients.
The age may have made its impact, but it is no deterrent for this indefatigable old man from Jharkhand. Mukherjee™s story would be incomplete without a mention of his wife Uma Mukherjee, who despite facing several ailments has helped him remain focused and motivated. Even from the little income, Dr Mukherjee makes donations to schools.
Over the years, the doctor has made his little compromises to bring a benign smile on the pale, ragged faces of the poor he serves.
My pension and the earning from the pathology lab help me run my household. You need to draw a line somewhere. One can desire for so many things but perhaps one does not need everything that he craves for, he says.
Even today, 44 years after he started practicing in Ranchi, Dr Mukherjee is still motivated to treat patients for a pittance. But what drives him on? A poor man™s plight and the realisation is that my contribution is still too little to make a difference, he says.
In fact, Dr Mukherjee is known to be a person who has refused requests for newspaper interviews and many felicitation offers. He does not do it for publicity.
Contributed by: sanskriti_patel @yahoo.com
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