Maharashtra: Dhule’s popular ‘poor people’s doctor’ succumbs to virus

PUNE: A renowned doctor from Dhule succumbed to Covid-19-induced organ failure at the city’s Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital on Tuesday.
Chudaman Patil (48), widely known as the ‘poor people’s doctor’, had developed a fever two days before he started experiencing breathlessness. On August 14, he was moved to Noble hospital in Pune and a day later, shifted to the DMH where doctors had put him on ventilator support.
Patil is survived by his wife and two daughters.
In Dhule, at least 21 doctors have contracted Covid-19 since March. Members of the Indian Medical Association, Dhule, said Patil is the first Covid casualty among medical workers in the region.
He was running a 25-bed hospital with his pathologist wife.
Dhule-based surgeon Ravi Wankhedkar said Patil was a popular figure in the region. “He never used an inability to pay as a reason to refuse treatment. He was known as the ‘poor people’s doctor’ here,” Wankhedkar said.
An alumnus of the BJ Medical College and Sassoon hospital, Patil got his medical degree in 1988. He pursued his post-graduation in medicine at KEM Hospital and had been running his practice in Dhule for the past 20 years.
“He had been relentless in his service to the people during Covid-19. He must have contracted infection from a patient,” said Wankhedkar, a former national president of the IMA.
At the DMH, the hospital medical director, Dhananjay Kelkar, said, “He was critical when he was brought in. And he had been on ventilator since admission. In addition to partial renal failure and heart disease, he had chronic conditions including diabetes and hypertension. Despite the best of care here, he succumbed to complications.”