Odisha: A dedicated rural nurse from Puri has saved the lives of several pregnant women and their newborns

The Daya river had, in a furious spate, gouged out a 100 feet deep ghai (a gaping gap) right in the middle of the road, thus cutting off several villages from their community health centre in Kanasa block of Puri district in Odisha.

It was August 26, 2022, and while everyone stayed indoors out of the relentless rain, 35-year-old Manjulata Maharana, an Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) at the Sahaspur health sub-centre, revved up her scooty (two-wheeler) to ride to Dandasahipada village located about 1.5 kilometres from her home in Sahaspur. Maharana’s sub-centre falls under the Community Health Centre of Kanasa block.

At Dandasahiapada, Sumitra Sethi, who was having advanced labour pains, was waiting to be taken to the health sub-centre that was about one and a half kilometres away. Sumitra’s aunt, Anita Sethi has called for an ambulance from the community health centre, but the ambulance was stuck, unable to navigate the deep ditch.

Manjulata took a shortcut, reached Dandashipada, and took Sumitra and Anita pillion to the health sub-centre. Reaching there, they found no doctors or nurses available. Wasting no more time, the ANM Manjulata shifted Sumitra onto an examination table and helped her deliver a healthy baby girl, weighing nearly 2.75 kilogram.

On June 23 this year, Manjulata received the National Florence Nightingale Award for 2023 from President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.

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This award was instituted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in the year 1973 as a mark of recognition for the meritorious services rendered by the nurses and nursing professionals to the society. These are given in the honour of Florence Nightingale who is revered as the founder of modern nursing.

In the space of 12 days in the terrible monsoon rains last August, ANM Manjulata helped three other pregnant women give birth and saved their lives.

“Manjulata Didi was a godsend who saved me and my baby in the nick of time,” Sumitra told Gaon Connection gratefully.

This isn’t all. Between August 2022 and May 2023, the ANM successfully assisted 105 women in Puri district give birth to their babies safely, without the presence of a doctor or a nurse.

“I underwent training in a 21-day workshop on Skill Attendant Birth in 2013-14 in Puri where I was working on deputation,” Manjulata told Gaon Connection. Thanks to this training she has saved a lot of lives. She started her career as an ANM at the Gadabasahi health sub-centre in Puri district in 2008.

“Manjulata once successfully helped a woman deliver a baby in an ambulance. It was a case of obstructed labour where the baby is unable to come out smoothly through the birth passage. Usually, it is because of the mismatch between the foetal size and the pelvis of the mother,” Arabinda Mohapatra, the community health officer of Kanasa block, explained to Gaon Connection.

Manjulata and her team have time and again come to the rescue of those in distress. When cyclone Fani hit Puri in 2019, they not only provided medical aid to the affected people in Sahaspur, but also procured food for them.

“Manjulata Didi rendered immense service in the immediate aftermath of cyclone Fani in 2019. My wife Archana was pregnant during the floods last year. She kept the morale of my wife high and assisted her,” remembered Prasanta Maohapatra, a resident of Kaudikhani coming under the Sahaspur sub-centre.

“I felt proud when Manjulata received the National Florence Nightingale Award for 2023 from President Droupadi Murmu on June 23 this year at Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi,” Sujata Mishra, Chief District Medical and Public Health Officer of Puri, told Gaon Connection.

Along with Manjulata, nurse Sebati Sahoo of Nabarangpur District Headquarter Hospital also received the National Florence Nightingale Award for 2022. The duo was amongst 30 who got the prestigious award on the occasion.

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“The Sahaspur health sub-centre under Manjulata also received the prestigious Kalpataru Award in 2022 under National Health Mission on the recommendation of the state government,” Dhaneswar Swain, Kanasa Block Programme Manager, told Gaon Connection.

“Because of her able leadership, the Sahaspur sub-centre was honoured with the Kalpataru Award along with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, as it fulfilled all the requisites set by National Health Mission, including a high level of cleanliness, hygiene and infection control,” he explained.

Manjulata, along with the ASHA in charge of the four villages of Sahaspur, Kaudikhani, Sanaora and Badaora, which come under the sub-centre, worked round the clock during the pandemic.

The team under Manjulata meticulously maintained records about the number of people entering the village, noted down the data on the number of positive cases, and kept track of those in quarantine. They also did yeoman service in persuading people to step up and get vaccinated.

“By God’s grace our effort paid off, as there were no human casualties during the pandemic in the villages,” said a proud Manjulata.

This story is part of Gaon Connection's new series 'Custodians of Rural Healthcare' which focuses on stories of frontline healthcare workers in rural India.