Man files RTI petition to know his blood group after tests throw up different results

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 23.05.2018
It was a plea with a difference that the central information commission heard while adjudicating a case by a man wanting to know his blood group. The RTI application was filed after tests threw up different results about the appellant’s blood type.

The RTI was to the medical council of India (MCI). The plea included reports of tests conducted at different government hospitals and private labs which gave “completely different results” of Rahul Chitra’s blood group. Some tests revealed his RH factor was positive, while it was found negative in others, said the RTI application filed by an associate of Chitra.

Rhesus (Rh) factor is an inherited protein found on the surface of red blood cells. If a person’s blood has the protein, his/her Rh factor is positive, and if not, it’s Rh is negative. Rh positive is the most common blood type. Once the MCI rejected the application, Chitra along with the RTI applicant approached the commission, where Chitra said that he had undergone blood tests at four different pathological labs in Agra and at the district hospital. The tests showed he has two blood types: B positive, B negative.

He said a test conducted at the Pant Hospital in Delhi showed his blood group was B positive. “If, during an emergency, I require blood transfusion, which blood group would be given to me,” questioned Chitra during the hearing before information commissioner Yashovardhan Azad.

The information commissioner noted that the issue raised by the applicant was “serious in nature and pertains to Chitra's life”. “There is no clarity on Rahul Chitra’s blood group. It’s a serious question as to which blood group should be given to him in case of an emergency. It becomes even more important as information sought is linked to his Right to Life,” Azad said.

Azad rejected the MCI’s contention that the question does not come under the definition of “information” which can be sought under the RTI Act and asked the CPIO to transfer the application to director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

“The Commission has concluded that AIIMS can do proper inquiry and inform the applicant,” Azad added. 


TESTING TIMES

Parents end life in hosp after son dies
Couple Take Poison After Son’s Death In Accident

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tirupur: 23.05.2018
A day after a 22-yearold student died in a bike accident, his grief-stricken parents committed suicide by consuming poison at Avinashi Government Hospital, where the victim’s body was kept, in Tirupur on Tuesday.

S Nishanth of Namakkal was returning from Coimbatore on his bike on Monday night when he smashed into a stationary mini-truck near Avinashi. Nishant and his relative V Kribhakaran, died on the spot. His parents Sakthivel, 54, and Sudha, 48, who rushed to Avinashi Government Hospital where the bodies were kept, consumed fruit juice laced with pesticide in the wee hours of Tuesday.

Police said Nishanth of Ekkattur near Kumaramangalam in Namakkal district had visited Coimbatore passport office in the morning along with Kribhakaran, 21, from Pykara in Udhagamandalam and was returning home in the evening when the accident happened. Nishanth was driving the motorcycle. When they reached a flyover at Attayampalayam near Avinashi, he rode straight into a stationary mini-truck. “The mini-truck was loaded with a paper cup making machine. The machine slipped and fell from the vehicle. The driver had stopped the vehicle and was mounting the machine with the help of a passerby when the incident took place,’’ a police officer said.

Nishanth had apparently failed to anticipate a vehicle stationed atop the flyover and could not bring the bike to a halt. “Nishanth and Kribhakaran were flung off the bike in the impact. They also hit a man named Ganesan of Pudukottai, an auto driver, who was helping the mini-truck driver load the machine on the vehicle,’’ a police officer said. In the impact, Nishanth and Kribhakaran suffered severe injuries on their head while Ganesan had his leg fractured.

Passersby rushed the three to Avinashi Government Hospital but Nishanth and Kribhakaran were declared brought dead. Nishanth’s parents visited the hospital in the night. They were inconsolable since their arrivel at the hospital and were constantly crying, police said.

Unable to bear the grief, they mixed pesticide with fruit juice and consumed it. “Their relatives, who had accompanied them to the hospital, rushed them to a private hospital. But Sakthivel died around midnight and Sudha died a few hours later,’’ police said. 



(Left) Nishanth and Kribhakaran; (Right) Sakthivel and Sudha

Girl moves court against college’s ‘harassment’ for wearing hijab

Mumbai: 23.05.2018

A homeopathy student barred from attending college because she wears the hijab (headscarf) has moved court saying she is now being prevented from appearing for repeater exams in June because of poor attendance.

Bandra resident Fakeha Badami enrolled in the bachelor of homeopathy medicine and surgery course in Sai Homeopathic Medical College, Bhiwandi, in 2016. The college, affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), didn’t allow her to attend lectures because she wears the hijab. The ministry of AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy) directed the college to resolve the issue, saying “it cannot compel a student to not wear the hijab since it is disrespect to social justice”.

MUHS tried to help Fakeha by writing to the state medical education and drugs department to know if there was any regulation barring Muslim students from wearing the hijab. It said she should be allowed to attend college. But the college did not budge.

By the time Fakeha approached the high court the first time, in November 2017, the college exams were over. On March 12, 2018 the college denied it was not allowing her to attend lectures. It told the HC it will accommodate her in repeater lectures (which have begun). The college was directed to approach MUHS for Fakeha and seek its advice on rules and regulations.

Fakeha was allowed to attend lectures on March 19 only upon producing a copy of the HC’s order. On March 28, the college wrote to MUHS asking if Fakeha should be allowed to appear for the repeater exams in view of her attendance of “only six days”. MUHS replied on April 11, saying she “does not meet the mandatory attendance criteria”. This prompted her to approach the HC again. TNN

Nipah virus kills 2 more, threat level ‘localised’: Central team
But Several States Sound Virus Alert

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 23.05.2018

Initial investigation by a medical team sent by the Centre to probe the sudden outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus in Kerala suggests it is a “localised occurrence” and unlikely to spread as of now, the health ministry said on Tuesday urging people not to believe in rumours on social media. “There is no reason for people to panic. This appears to be a localised occurrence,” the ministry said.

Two more people succumbed to the virus in Kerala on Tuesday, taking the confirmed toll to 10, according to the Kerala government.

Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Assam have also sounded a Nipah alert, though they have categorically stated that effective measures have contained the threat in Kerala.

A multi-disciplinary central team from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) visited the house in Kerala’s Perambra from where the initial death was reported, and found many bats in a well from where the family took water.

“Some bats have been caught and sent for lab tests to confirm whether they are the cause of the disease. Sixty samples have been collected from the spot,” the ministry said. Health ministry officials said the situation is under control and the NCDC team is constantly monitoring it.

The Nipah virus, or NiV infection, is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. The infection is spread mainly by fruit bats.

Symptoms of the disease include breathing trouble, brain swelling, fever, headache, drowsiness, disorientation and delirium. A patient can fall into coma within 48 hours. It travels through direct contact with a patient. There is no vaccine for the virus yet, says the World Health Organisation, and the main treatment for those infected is intensive supportive care.

While the outbreak in Kerala has so far claimed 10 lives, a total of nine persons are currently undergoing treatment and isolation wards have been opened in several hospitals in Kozhikode.

The Union health ministry has also mobilised a public health team from the NCDC's Kozhikode branch to assess the extent of the problem for risk assessment and management.


SAFETY FIRST: A relative of one of the deceased who died of Nipah virus conducting the final rites wearing protective clothing to avoid getting infected from the dead at Mavoor on Tuesday

Nipah virus: Med teams deployed at TN-Kerala border

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai: 23.05.2018

The Theni district administration has formed medical teams to check people from Kerala entering the district for symptoms of nipah virus on Tuesday.

In the wake of nipah virus claiming several lives in Kerala, the Tamil Nadu government has taken precautionary steps to prevent the spreading of the virus into the state. While collectors of the districts sharing a border with Kerala have been alerted, Theni collector M Pallavi Baldev conducted a meeting on Tuesday. Higher officials from various departments and health authorities took part in the meeting.

The medical teams are stationed at the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border at Kumily, Bodi Mettu and Cumbum Mettu roundthe-clock. Disinfectants are also being applied on vehicles entering the state.

“Those found having fever are given medicines and their details are recorded. Those who have the symptoms would be isolated and separately treated,” said a medical officer posted at Kumily.

The district administration has also asked people not to eat fruits eaten by bats as they may be infected with nipah virus.

The health authorities in the district have been instructed to keep the required medicines and equipment ready to treat patients in case of an infection.

Local body officials have been alerted to improve the sanitation in their respective areas.

Passion to save snakes made him an icon of conservation

Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com 23.05.2018

Like many others P R Vishwanath, a resident of Tirunagar in Madurai, too developed a compassion for animals from a young age. But he did not stop with just showing empathy from a distance. For the past 10 years, Vishwanath, 32, has been rescuing animals in distress, mostly snakes. He has taken up conservation activities to restore the habitat of these animals with the help of a team of volunteers.

Along with his childhood friend R Sahadevan, Vishwanath started ‘Urvanam’ three years ago. Many volunteers joined the organisation over a period of time.

Urvanam rescues animals, be it domestic animals, wild animals, or birds. But the organisation is better known for rescuing snakes. “It is because we have been getting more calls for catching snakes. We have also been rescuing dogs, birds, mongooses, monkeys and palm civets,” said Vishwanath, an MBA graduate.

Urvanam gets an average of 200 calls per month for rescuing snakes from various parts of the city. Its volunteers have rescued more than 5,000 snakes and released them in suitable habitats. Vishwanath says even though residents today are more aware about wildlife compared a decade ago, killing of snakes is still rampant. “There are times when people would have already killed the snake by the time we reached the spot. Such killings happen due to lack of awareness about snakes and their behaviour. People do not know the difference between poisonous and nonpoisonous species. Snakes are crucial to biodiversity and it may cause serious ecological imbalance if their number comes down,” he says Vishwanath who learnt the art of handling snake from Sahadevan.

When a wild animal is rescued by Urvanam, it is either done in the presence of forest personnel or with prior approval. Volunteers usually nursed a rescued animal in their homes until it is fit to be released. Urvanam recently started a home for rescued animals. “When we posted a request on our Facebook page, a gentleman came forward to give a piece of land for three years without any rent for us to start the home,” Vishwanath said.

Urvanam conducts programmes in schools and colleges to create awareness on snakes. Indian cobra, Russell’s viper and common krait are commonly found poisonous snakes whereas wolf snake, green wine snake, bronze back tree snake and sand boa are harmless ones, says Vishwanath.

Having reached out to thousands of students across the district in the past three years, Vishwanath, says the efforts seem to have paid off.

“People used to kill the snake the moment they spotted it. Now they are aware enough to call the forest department or volunteers to rescue the snake.”

Apart from helping animals in distress, volunteers at Urvanam also clean and renovate water bodies in and around Tirunagar and plant trees to restore habitats of animals. They have renovated Vilachery Tank and Semathan Tank over the past couple of years.

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Bedridden for six years, girl walks to take Class XII exam

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:   23.05.2018

For K Bhuvaneshwari, her first test as she appeared for the Class XII state board exam this year was to cover the 100m between the hall’s entrance and her desk. Arthritis had left her fingers twisted and her legs lifeless; this was a moment that had been six years in the waiting. At 23, she succeeded. And scored 71%.

Her mark wasn’t just a sign of her perseverance, it held out hope for others like her diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis — a condition that causes joint inflammation and stiffness in children aged 16 or younger. The degenerative condition can be managed medically if detected within three months of onset.

Bhuvaneshwari, from a poor family in Perungalathur, sought medical help six years late. “She was brought to us on a stretcher,” said chief orthopaedic surgeon at Parvathy Hospital, Chromepet, Dr S Muthukumar, who sponsored her treatment. It had started as a slight weakness in the left knee when she was 16.

“Within six months, I was bedridden and completely dependent on my grandmother,” said Bhuvaneshwari, whose parents abandoned her as a child. By the time she was brought to the hospital, both her knees and hips were beyond medical repair. “Eight joints were affected,” Dr Muthukumar said. The only joints that showed slower progression of the disease were the shoulder and elbows.

Following a year of medical treatment in 2015, Bhuvaneshwari told her doctors she wanted to appear for the Class X board exams in 2016.

“I didn’t want to apply under the specially-abled category or ask for extra time,” said Bhuvaneshwari, who was carried into the exam hall by her brother. She scored 79%. “A neighbour saw me struggle and offered to tutor me at home. I appeared as a private candidate,” she said.

Her tenacity surprised doctors. “She wanted to walk on her own to write her Class XII board exam,” said Dr Muthukumar. Her right knee was bent at a 60-degree angle and her left knee was twisted at 30 degrees. “She couldn’t stretch either leg. Straightening them would increase the risk of her blood vessels being cut off and her nerves stretched,” the doctor said. Her hip bones had completely eroded too. “We knew helping her walk would boost her confidence. So we decided to take a calculated risk,” he said.

The total knee replacement was done in three stages in 2017 as the patient’s bones had become extremely soft. A team of neuro and vascular surgeons, in a three-hour procedure, placed implants wherever there was erosion. Three months of intense physiotherapy followed. The result: after years of crawling, Bhuvaneshwari could finally walk, albeit with a limp. After monitoring her, doctors presented her before the media on Tuesday.

Bhuvaneshwari, who has applied for BCom in a city college, will have to undergo a second procedure for her hips soon and possibly be on lifelong medication.

“I’ve come this far with the help of so many people. I know I will be able to walk again,” she said.