Patients given chemo on roads as floodwaters inundate Assam cancer hospital

The devastating floods in Assam may have brought life to a standstill, but not for the staff of Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, who are on their toes to ensure that cancer patients receive the right treatment – even if it means administering chemotherapy to them on the roads the moment it stops raining.

The floods in the northeast state and neighbouring Bangladesh had inundated the 150-bed hospital located in the Barak Valley.

Hospital authorities, however, haven’t crumbled down to pressure. They have requested life-jackets, an inflatable raft to transport patients and staff and other essential commodities to see that the facility keeps running despite the natural calamity.

“Procedures that can be done outside, like chemotherapy and initial diagnosis, we are doing on the road where there is minimal water-logging,” Dharshana R, the head of the hospital’s resource-mobilization department told Reuters.

While the hospital is only conducting emergency surgeries at the moment, the number of surgeries have gone down due to the shortage of nitrous gas required for anesthesia. She says that only four surgeries have been conducted in the past one week against the usual count of 20 per week.

Dharshana says the facility is in an immediate need of drinking water, food and diesel to run generators and fuel for cooking.

She says while the hospital was full before the floods began, it is currently housing only 85 patients after the administration advised the others to go home or to safer locations as a safety measure.

With the flooding caused by the nearby Barak river, the state government has said that the situation is still dangerous in Cachar and neighbouring Karimganj and Hailakhandi while floodwaters are beginning to recede in regions along the Brahmaputra.

More than 120 people have perished and 22 lakh have been affected in floods and resultant landslides in Assam. According to reports around 2.17 lakh people are lodged in 564 relief camps while the state government with the help of NDRF continues relief and rescue missions.