Bhaktivedanta Hospital and the Gujurat earthquake

[Guest guest]

Camp: Bhaktivedanta Hospital, Mumbai.

 

Dear Maharajas and Prabhus

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Bhaktivedanta Hospital staff is bringing us good news amidst the earthquake

disaster in Gujurat. Please take a few minutes to read about it.

 

Thank you.

 

Your servant.

 

Hari-dhama dasa - Bhaktivedanta

 

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NEWS RELEASE

 

For immediate publication

 

"BHAKTIVEDANTA HOSPITAL PROVIDES FREE HOLISTIC HEALTHCARE TO EARTHQUAKE

VICTIMS" by Hari-dhama dasa

 

Mumbai, India - Bhaktivedanta Hospital, which provides holistic health care

with equal emphasis on the needs of the body, mind and soul, continues to make

a marked difference to the lives of those affected by the devastation of the

Gujurat earthquake of 26 January 2001.

 

A team of doctors, nurses, spiritual care counselors, and support workers

tirelessly work on a regular ten-day rotation basis, providing holistic care to

the inhabitants of Rahpar, a small town in the north of the Rann of Kutch and

140 villages in the surrounding area.

 

The hospital relief team rapidly moved into the disaster areas soon after the

earthquake struck, seeing to the medical and nursing needs of the victims. The

physical support care program is being complemented by a spiritual care package

that consists of spiritual care counseling, sanctified food distribution, and

prayer group meetings.

 

UNICEF has made available to the Bhaktivedanta Hospital relief effort a tent in

which a Day Care Center with 20 beds has been set-up to provide essential

medical and nursing care. Up to now over 3 thousand patients have been cared

for since the hospital extended its care beyond its usual catchment area in the

Thane District.

 

The earthquake indiscriminately struck at the heart of every inhabitant,

leaving thousands of people devastated and destitute. Spiritual care counselors

from Bhaktivedanta Hospital are bringing hope and restored faith to the victims

who are grappling with the psychological trauma that this natural disaster has

brought to their lives.

 

Dedicated doctors and nurses risked their own lives when they took occupancy of

the deserted Shrushrusha General Hospital that was abandoned by its own doctors

and patients soon after the first tremors. It is in this hospital where staff

from Bhaktivedanta Hospital are attending to severe spinal injuries, wounds,

infections, fractures, lacerations to children, hypothermia, pneumonia and

other related injuries.

 

Seriously ill and injured patients are being airlifted to Bhaktivedanta

Hospital in Mumbai where a team of specialist consultants are on stand-by.

 

Food for Life, the international food relief program of the International

Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Juhu, Mumbai is distributing on a

daily basis 150 thousand hot sanctified vegetarian meals to the needy. This

relief program has received international recognition for its efforts in the

Balkans wars.

 

All relief work is provided free of charge or is being sponsored by corporate

businesses on behalf of Bhaktivedanta Hospital.

 

"As a hospital with all facilities, I feel that it is very important to reach

out and extend ourselves by providing medical relief not only at our hospital,

but also to the affected sites where literally tens of thousands of earthquake

victims are struggling to come to terms with this calamity. Bhaktivedanta

hospital is committed in making a discernable difference to the lives of our

brothers and sisters in Gujurat by providing holistic healthcare that takes

acre of the body, mind and soul", says Mr. R. Talwar, Hospital Director.

 

End.