On July 9, parts of Pune city were shut due to a Palkhi procession. A doctor had to walk eight kilometers on foot to perform an emergency laparoscopy on a patient. The patient who turned out to have a serious liver complication, walked nearly an hour to reach the nearest hospital, while the doctor made his journey on foot after walking for almost four hours, as reported in Pune Mirror.

Dr Sushil Deshmukh, a Kalyani Nagar resident, was forced to park his car at Hadapsar, and started walking the next eight kilometers to Loni railway station, where he was finally given a lift by a motorcyclist. He started walking at 10am, it was 3pm by the time he arrived at Vishwaraj Hospital in Loni Kalbhor. The patient named Nitn Nathaji Raybhan was diagnosed with a ruptured liver abscess (RLA) of almost 22 centimeters, when he reached to the hospital, just a day before his scheduled operation.

Dr Deshmukh said, "RLA can be fatal and can lead to sepsis, empyema or peritonitis. he had to be treated urgently. I am the only surgeon who works at Vishwaraj Hospital. I had to reach there by using whatever means possible." When he reached the hospital, the hospital staff had made the pre-operative  arrangement and he directly headed to the operation theatre. A laparoscopy was performed and 700 ml of pus was removed.

Chanda Raybhan, the patient's wife, said, "It was difficult for us to get him to the hospital, as we had to walk for almost an hour. We are thankful to the doctor who did all this for us." Dr Deshmukh said the patient's condition is now stable and will soon be discharged. The Palkhi of Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj started from Alandi on July 6 and was to exit Pune on July 9 through Hadapsar, on its way to a halt in Saswad.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 16, 2018 10:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).