By Purushottam Nayak
Balasore: The diocese of Balasore in Odisha has converted its 100-bed hospital into a center for Covid care.
The Church gesture was in response to a request from the District Magistrate, says Father Paul Koonamparampath, the director of Jyoti Hospital in Balasore.
According to the priest, Odisha has seen a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases and the infection rate in Balasore was 27 percent.
“District Magistrate K Sudarshan Chakravarthy requested us to take care of Covid patients for three months from May by converting our general hospital into a Covid care center. The administration was satisfied with our performance and treatment of Covid patients last year,” the priest told Matters India.
Father Koonamparampath also said that the district has no private hospital with bed capacity like Jyoti Hospital, which was set up in 1999. “It has a well-equipped clinic with all the modern equipment,” the priest claimed.
The diocesan hospital had in 2015 won the National Excellence Award from the federal government for its role in providing quality health care and conducting medical camps in Odisha and west Bengal. The hospital also applauded for its outstanding contribution to tuberculosis control, the priest said.
The specialized hospital has separate and spacious waiting and consultation areas. It has more than 90 bed capacity for the Covid patients.
Sister Elsamma Sebastian, superior of Jyoti Convent and one of the 11 nurses at the hospital, says they have current 75 Covid patients and 90 percent of them need oxygen support. “The patients are mostly from other religions,” said Sebastian, a member of the Sisters of the Destitute, a congregation based in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
According to her, 11 nuns work in the hospital along with doctors and nurses from the government. “They are available round the clock for the patients,” she told Matters India.
She said the patients have many doubts about the disease and how long the treatment would last. “They also ask us about their families and relatives,”
The nun said they get “constant prayer support from religious leaders, parishes, institutions, priests, nuns, and lay people.”
Siba Narayan Panigrahi, a Hindu patient, says the Catholic nuns’ presence gives him courage and mental strength to fight the virus.
“The Christian religion invites people to have kindness, love, and service which I experience now from the sisters,” the 51-year-old villager told Matters India.