By Harihar Swarup
Tucked away in the scenic yet underdeveloped Konkan region lies Mahad, a small town that is 175 km to south of Mumbai. This obscure place is home to one of India’s internationally acclaimed physicians and an authority on scorpion and snake stings, Dr. Himmatrao Bawaskar. He was decorated this year with Padma Sri for his path breaking work.
Here is an example of his dedication to work. As far back as 1983, Dr. Himmatrao was called to treat an eight-year-old child with all the symptoms of severe scorpion bite—difficulty in breathing, drooling, nausea and vomiting, accelerated heart rate, and muscle twitching and thrashing. With chances of survival already low, the child’s condition began deteriorating even further when he developed pulmonary oedema (excess fluid in lungs).
If Dr. Himmatrao’s research over the years had taught him anything, it was that a sodium-based medicine was effective in treating heart failure due to a scorpion sting. He quickly turned to the child’s father for permission to use the drug drop by drop, minute by minute. It took four hours, but the signs of recovery were finally beginning to show—a slow rise in blood pressure, subsiding of pulmonary oedema, a drop in pulse rates. About 24 hours later. Dr. Himmatrao stood up to declare – the boy has been saved.
But in the triumph and celebration of having saved the child’s life, a small detail was missing. Sometime during monitoring of the drug, Dr Himmatrao was informed that he had just lost his father, and was being called home.
Two questions then before him: Should he be a dutiful son and choose his family? Or should he remain by his patient side in this crucial hour?
Ultimately, it was the later he chose. There were people back home who could take care of the funeral but who would take care of this child, dangling on the verge of death? Saving the child, he said, was greater tribute to his father.
Dr Himmatrao was born in a small village with a population 500 in rural Maharashtra to a poor family in early 1950s. He was fondly named as ‘Himmatrao’, meaning “one who is courageous”; it was years later that he proved that no other name would have suited him better. His father recognized that education was only tool that would liberate the family from sufferings. The determination to educate his children earned his illiterate father the nickname “barrister”. Dr. Himmatrao’s childhood was marked by with incessant hardships. He had to take up all kinds of jobs working in fields, hotels, temples, bookshops, chemist’s shop, brick kiln, and many odd places to support his education. Adversity taught him that he would have to fight for everything in life and nothing will come easy.
He was enrolled at government Medical college, Nagpur for his MBBS degree. Misfit in college and with lack of guidance, hard work was the only asset his possessed. He still recounts how he knew complete Gray’s autonomy by heart and emphasizes his deep study of pathology which has proven useful for his research. However, certain circumstances made him depressed and disillusioned during his college days. He lost his confidence and it was only after completion of his MBBS degree and a prolonged treatment that he came out of mental trauma. His strong roots with rural prompted him to opt for the position of a medical officer at a primary health centre (PHC) rather than a house job at a medical college. Fighting the red tape, he managed to get posting at a small PHC in the coastal district of Raigarh.
In the meantime, he realized that his education was inadequate for the need of his quest. To further his skills and knowledge, he applied for MD in medicine at B J College, Pune. Here too, he distinguished himself as a keen clinician. He mastered advanced techniques and intensive care. In the light of his new found knowledge, he prepared a paper on data of 51 cases of scorpion stings and send it to an Indian journal. It was rejected for editorial reasons like “English writing not good enough”. He sent the same paper to a foreign journal—Lancet– and received a response within eight days that the report was accepted with minor changes. Thereafter, there was no looking back for Dr. Himmatrao. (IPA Service)
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