Doctors hailed as 'real heroes' as they save lives of shelling

Jammu: While soldiers at International Border give a befitting reply to firings by Pakistan, the contribution of doctors who are treating people, including BSF jawans, injured in the cross-border shelling in Jammu is also remarkable.

The doctors at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), Jammu, have saved lives of many people injured in the shelling.

"After God, I am thankful to the doctors at this hospital. They saved my life," said Shamsher Singh who was injured in the cross-border shelling in Arnia and is now undergoing treatment at the hospital.

As the news about people getting injured in cross-border shelling spread, the disaster response cell of the hospital was activated and specialist doctors were called to treat the injured.

"As soon as we were informed that many people have been injured in the cross-border shelling, we activated our disaster response cell and all doctors including surgeons and other specialists arrived in the hospital early in the morning," Dr R Rattanpal, Medical Superintendent of GMC&H Jammu, said.

"It was around 3:15 on Sunday morning when we received our first patient and within no time there were 20 patients," he said.

As the inflow of the people injured in cross-border firing increased, several off-duty doctors also reached the hospital to deal with the "unprecedented rush".

"While the priority was to save precious lives of the people injured in cross-border firings, we could not ignore other patients. So to cope up with the unprecedented rush, the off-duty doctors at the hospital too returned to look after the patients," said Singh.

Several seriously injured patients undergoing treatment at the hospital say they owe their lives to the doctors here.

"He was seriously injured in the blast and we thought he will not survive as he had fallen unconscious, but the doctors at the hospital saved his life. They are our real heroes," said Bilo Devo, wife of Desh Raj who is undergoing treatment at the hospital.

"I am thankful to the doctors here for giving me a second lease of life. I owe my life to them," Desh Raj said.

There are around 64 patients undergoing treatment at the hospital currently and doctors have so far performed more than 13 surgeries to save lives of shelling victims.

"There were many patients who had to be operated upon in emergency. In the past five days, we have done 13 surgeries including some life-saving operations," said Dr Shazia, Chief Medical Officer of GMC&H.