On the 14th December 2021, the auspicious occasion of Gita Jayanti, the Bhaktivedanta Hospital at Vrindavan inaugurated its new Oxygen plant and Eye Operation Theatre. The occasion was graced by the presence of BR Radha Gokulanand Swami, Panchagouda Das - Temple President of ISKCON Vrindavan, Gauranga Das - ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner and Phagun Adhupiya, Project Manager, Sewa International and other dignitaries.
The Bhaktivedanta Hospital at Vrindavan is a 40 bedded hospital and is running under the Sri Chaitanya Seva Trust. The number of full-time doctors in the hospital are 10, part-time doctors are 6 and paramedical staff is 22.
Sri Chaitanya Seva Trust applied for a 250 lpm Oxygen plant and after due diligence of the proposal, received a grant from Sewa International USA for installing the plant. Sarojini, Subhash Gupta and Friends, Houston from USA gave the funding for the grant.
With the support of this oxygen plant, pilgrims and villagers from the near by areas will be able to get free treatment and also provision for COVID treatment through continuous oxygen supply, in case the third wave of pandemic strikes there. Prior to this, the oxygen supply was through oxygen cylinders. Refilling these oxygen cylinders during second wave of pandemic was very challenging due to the exponential increase in the price and the demand. The oxygen plant set up will not only resolve these issues but will also cater to our future needs, when the hospital will expand from 40 beds to 100 beds in the coming years.
Sri Chaitanya Seva Trust has been running its medical camps in the area of Barsana, near Vrindavan, since 1992 and over 300 volunteers (distributed in three weeks) participates in the camp including leading ophthalmologists, optometrist, general duty medical doctors and medical students, nurses, nursing students, kitchen staff and other nonclinical volunteers from the Indian cities of Mumbai, Pune, Belgaum, and Delhi, as well as from the US and the UK. Over the last 15 years, 1,04,404 patients have been screened and 21143 Patients have been operated.
In this holy dham of Vrindavan this project has deep roots since 1992. Long ago in January 1992, a group of doctors and His Holiness Radhanath Swami were on the pilgrimage of Barsana and he began his first eye camp in Barsana that time and later started Dentistry in February 2002. More and more people have started participating in the annual camps and appreciated the services.
Sewa International Project Manager, Phagun Adhupiya said: I am glad to see that Bhaktivedanta Hospital is providing amazing services here.
Dr. K. Venkataramanan, Ph.D., Director- Projects and Programs said, "We will do everything possible to work towards the reduction of the requirement". We are grateful to all our well wishers for making this project a reality".
Dr. Ajay Sankhe, Director of Bhaktivedanta Hospital remarks, “Bhaktivedanta Hospital is committed to serve the pilgrims and the villagers in the Mathura District and we hope that through this initiative, we will be able to reach out to more people.”
Pancagouda Das, temple President of ISKCON Vrindavan mentioned, “We are very happy to see the set up of oxygen plant and the eye operation theatre. This will really help so many residents, visitors and villagers to this holy land of Vrindavan who may land up in health issues due to circumstances.”
The program ended with hope and blessings of more and more services for the Brajwasis
