There are only a few things that still surprise Dr. Rajendran. As a doctor he has seen and experienced too much. “However, I haven´t see such a huge leprosy patch on a patient in the past three decades.” The skin, the entire chest and stomach area, of 37-year-old Vayipura is unnaturally brightened and completely numb. He hid the symptoms of his disease to keep his truck driver job. He simply ignored the muscle wasting and the numbness in the right half of his body.
Receiving help …
When he wasn´t able to close his right eye because of the facial nerve paralysis and water was running out of his mouth while drinking, Vayjpura finally went to the medical centre of Sagayamatha. “He was very late but not too late”, says Dr. Rajendran, head of the hospital, confident that his patient will be able to drive again after the drug therapy.
… in the last second
The medical centre of Sagayamatha is located in Pullamadi, in the South Indian State Tamil Nadu. Since the early 70s, DAHW German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association has been supporting this centre. At that time, 15 out of 1,000 inhabitants, in some valleys the number was even three times higher, were infected with leprosy bacteria.
The graves at the hospital’s cemetery stand as a reminder of the horror spread by this disease. Deceased patients found their final resting place here, as they could not be buried in their home villages. How is it today? “We can cure leprosy, but often disabilities remain, still many patients lose their limbs such as hands or feet”, says Dr. Rajendran.
Waiting for treatment or physiotherapy: Patients in front of the hospital in Pullambadi. Photo: Bauerdick / DAHW
Most of the 40 beds in the leprosy department of the medical centre of Sagayamatha are occupied. There is a heavy rush after the rainy season. “When the roads are flooded, the people take off their sandals so they don´t lose them. In the mud they step on thorns or sharp stones and don´t feel anything when they hurt their numb feet”, explains Dr. Rajendran.
To overcome the own shame
Only two days ago old Thiru was brought to Pullambadi. He isolated himself from his valley until his brother found him in an old shed, with a fever, dirty and with a gaping wound on his feet. Bathed, shaved, and with fresh clothes and a cleaned wound Thiru is on the road to recovery. The reason why he didn´t look for help himself was simply shame. “I didn´t want anybody to see me like this”.
Father Thangasamy, hospital director, knows from bitter experience that the stigmatization of leprosy patients is still present. “Old and disabled people are pushed over, time and time again. Relatives of leprosy patients’ don´t want to see them during family celebrations or huge weddings”.
The hope for the patients around Pullambady is Father Thangasamy and his medical centre Sagayamatha. “This is an oasis for me”, enthuses a patient. The 71 year old had been to several hospitals. “Nowhere have I been treated so well and been seen as a fellow man like here. If I could, I would stay here for the rest of my life”.
Overview Annual Report 2011
