HYDERABAD, April 25, 2020 : Dr KM Ismail Hussain who treated hundreds of thousands of poor people free for five decades succumbed to Covid-19 while fighting to save many from the pandemic.

The Kurnool-based medical practitioner was popularly known as ‘two-rupee doctor’ in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. He died on April 14. He was 76.

Ismail’s popularity led to patients to travel hundreds of km to avail of his services.

“He had dedicated his entire life to the service of humanity,” said Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh, a friend of the doctor for over four decades.

Ismail and Venkatesh, a social servant before joining politics, developed a bondage while ensuring communal harmony in Kurnool after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992.

“He treated all his poor patients equally, whether Muslims or Hindus, and even till weeks before his demise saved hundreds from the clutches of coronavirus,” said Venkatesh.

An alumnus turned faculty member of Kurnool Medical College, he spent most of his time for social service in his latter days but continued practice in the evening for poor patients. With a population of 40 percent, Muslims constituted a chunk of his patients in the old town area of Kurnool but he was never identified as a Muslim doctor.

He was respected by other communities, including the Marwari community in Kurnool, who always sought his guidance, said KC Kalkura, an 80-year-old Udupi Brahmin friend of Dr Ismail for over four decades.

“Doctor Saheb never asked a patient’s name, only age and symptoms,” Kalkura said. A large section of poverty stricken Muslims and Hindus in the old town relied on him for decades

“He never demanded a consultation fee in his lifetime as most patients were poor.” The doctor had a cardboard box placed on the table next to where he sat for patients who wished to pay whatever they could.

The government recently availed his services to track down those who returned from the Tabligi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin.

Senior municipal administration official K Laxmi Narayana Reddy said Dr Ismail went door to door till April 10 night, trying to help authorities identify the participants.

“Lakhs of his patients, admirers, friends, relatives and politicians would have attended his last rites,” said K Srinivas Reddy, a government servant in Kurnool.

“Unfortunately, owing to the Covid-19 protocol, he was buried at midnight in the presence of just 5-6 family members, who were quarantined as they tested positive.”

source: Economic Times