Valiant youngsters deliver plasma for covid-19 warrior, 450-km car relay from Guwahati to Dibrugarh in less than 8 hours

Guwahati :  Scores of young men in Guwahati, Assam did heroic act to save life of Covid-19 warrior, who was battling for his life in hospital. The young men organized car relay of about 450-km from Guwahati to Dibrugarh in less than 8 hours to deliver life saving plasma in ice box for covid-19 warrior. All young men, chose voluntary for delivering plasma, drove their respective cars at breakneck speed for accomplishing target, handed over blood plasma in ice box from one group to another, covering a distance of 450 km from Guwahati to Dibrugarh in less than 8 hours to save the life of a COVID-19 warrior. The victim was  battling with deadly infection in the ICU of the Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH) at Dibrugarh.

The mission to save life of Covid-19 warrior life started late on Friday evening, when Dibrugarh-based doctor and social worker Bhaskar Papukon Gogoi got a call about an urgent requirement of blood plasma for covid-19 warrior. The victim,  Bijurani Gogoi, a staff nurse at the AMCH was infected with the corona virus in the line of duty and is battling for life. The plasma bank at AMCH had run empty, the nearest option was Jorhat Medical College Hospital (JMCH), but it also had no stock.

"I was able to get one unit of plasma at Guwahati Medical College but the issue was how it will be brought. The government machinery is already overstretched with the COVID spike in Assam," narrated Dr Gogoi. It is worth mentioning that Dr Gogoi had arranged blood plasma for a few other patients in Dibrugarh in the past.

Realizing the importance of blood plasma, Dr Gogoi dialled the Dibrugarh unit of the Marwari Yuva Manch (MYM). MYM is one of the largest youth volunteer organisations in the country with members from the Marwari community living across the country.

Reacting to phone call, Rahul Agarwal, general secretary of northeast chapter of MYM, said “At around 9 pm, our Dibruagrh unit informed us. We had in past been actively involved in Assam in helping poor people, flood relief, blood donation but this was a new crisis but we decided to take the responsibility of taking the blood plasma unit from Guwahati to Dibrugarh”.

“There was a huge challenge - inter-district movement in Assam is barred and there is night curfew every day between 6 pm to 6 am and on weekends there is a total lockdown”, he reiterated.

Understanding covid-19 protocol, Mohit Nahata President MYM Northeast, who lives in Kokrajhar activated all MYM units between Guwahati to Dibrugarh. It was decided that each of the district unit will take the blood plasma to their district border and the next district unit will be waiting at the border to take over. He himself monitored the entire process over phone to ensure timely delivery of blood plasma to hospital.

At 10:35 pm, Rahul Agarwal and Ravi Surekha received the blood plasma unit from Guwahati medical college (GMC) and rushed to Nagaon, where they handed the unit over to their Nagaon team, which handed it over to another team at Bokakhat.

"It was like a relay race, racing against time and opponent, handing over the baton. Bokakhat team gave it to Jorhat, Jorhat team drove to the border of Sivasagar and Sivasagar team drove it to Moran and finally Moran to Dibrugarh," Rahul Agarwal added.

"We had never done anything of this magnitude. We are happy that we pulled it off. Our teams were stopped by police at several places but we showed the letter from GMC and between Jorhat to Joran our teams had to negotiate heavy rain. All of us were awake, tracking the teams on the move through live locations," said Subir Kejriwal who received the blood plasma at Dibrugarh at 6:14 am and handed over to AMCH.

For Dr Gogoi it was a sleepless night but he came with the Dibrugarh team to receive the blood plasma. "It's a night I will never forget in my life. I also went with the Dibrugarh team to take the ice box carrying blood plasma. It would not have been possible without these youths. They are the shining example on how youths and the civil society can make a difference in this war against COVID," Dr Gogoi added. The patient was administered plasma on Saturday, AMCH sources added.'