Doctor who carried pregnant woman on cot gets first Gopapandhu Award

By Our Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR, NOV. 8: Dr Omkar Hota, a young doctor who on November 1 carried a pregnant woman for 8 km to get her admitted to a hospital to save her life, on Tuesday received the first Gopabandhu Award instituted by the state government.

He received the award from chief minister Naveen Patnaik at a special function here in the state secretariat.

“It is a special moment for me and the doctors of the state as well. I don’t think I have done something great…I had just performed my duty of a sensible citizen of the country,” the doctor said, with all humility.

Dr Omkar Hota who is posted at Paplur Hospital under Chitrakonda block, 150 km from Malkangiri district headquarters hospital and around 800 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, on November 1 got information that a woman at Serigeta village was complaining serious labour pain.

Without making any delay, he along with an attendant rushed to the village that lacked good road connectivity.

Realising that the woman had suffered excess blood loss, the doctor carried out the delivery process at the village.

Post delivery, it was decided to take her to the hospital as her condition started deteriorating.

After villagers refused to carry the woman to the hospital, the doctor and the woman’s husband carried her on a cot for eight km. The lives of the woman and her newborn were saved.

The state government has recently instituted Gopabandhu Award to be given away to doctors and other para-medics rendering healthcare services to people in inaccessible pockets of the state.