E-Paper
Guwahati lines up to donate blood
Newton’s Third Law To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction is being proved over and over again in Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). For every drop of blood spilled by the terrorist, there is a donor in the queue, reports Rahul Karmakar.
Newton’s Third Law — To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — is being proved over and over again in Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). For every drop of blood spilled by the terrorist, there is a donor in the queue, despite a VHP-BJP bandh on Saturday.
Some 1,500 people turned up at GMCH since the blasts to help save lives. Most of them, like Kuntala Dutta, 50, and Anjali Deuri, 47, have been waiting for over 14 hours, but are yet to put in their bit. Reason: the GMCH blood bank is not equipped to handle so many donors.
Dutta and Deuri even pledged their bodies for organ transplants. Their inspiration was a woman who died of cancer at 34. A month before she died in May 2003, Ellora Roychoudhury became the first woman in the Northeast to pledge her body for medical research and transplant.
“Pledging bodies requires signing a last will in the presence of two witnesses. We have been facilitating the process,” said Ishfaqur Rahman, head of the Ellora Vigyan Mancha and Roychoudhury’s husband. The blasts moved many people to enquire about pledging organs to save lives.
Among the donors was Shahidul Islam, 30, who came all the way from Mangaldoi, headquarters of Darrang district that was torn asunder by communal clashes only a month ago. He said, “I don’t know who my blood will go to, but I know it can go a long way to beat the very motive of terror – death.”
Echoing him were Ambika Prasad Sarma, 55, from Rangiya town, and Guwahati-based Pankaj Kumar Jain. “The need of the hour is to save lives and ensure we remain united to discourage the divisive forces,” said Sarma.
