To perpetuate his memory, she thought of a free medical info-cum-care centre. The centre would provide information to patients and also assist them with raising finances for treatment. With a toddler son in her arms, Uma, then a 25-year-old undergraduate, set out on her new and laudable cause. On August 4, 1996, Santhi Medical Information Centre (SMIC) was set up in the temple town of Guruvayur in Thrissur, Kerala. Till date, it is a one-stop centre dispensing information on doctors and hospitals the world over and what treatments are available where. It also procures aid for the treatment of poor patients.
Her husband was a successful businessman and therefore she wasn’t on the streets. Before her husband slipped into coma, Uma says, she had told him about her idea. "He too realised the necessity of such a centre and gave me the go-ahead," she says.
SMIC’s intervention has been admirable. It has already facilitated 500 kidney transplants, 2,000 heart surgeries and mobilised more than Rs 8 crore in aid from the Centre and the Kerala government for poor patients. It conducts subsidised dialysis at Thrissur and Palakkad for the less-privileged kidney patients. It has installed 13 dialysis machines. It charges Rs 750 per dialysis while the rate at private hospitals is between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. It also offers subsidies to the poor at Rs 400. In Palakkad and Thrissur district alone, these units have carried out about 6,000 dialyses in two years at subsidised rates. "SMIC is providing assistance to nearly 35 patients per day," says V.B. Salil, who works at the centre.
A former mechanic, Salil owes his life to Uma and SMIC. He was once a patient here in need of a kidney transplant. Finding a donor was difficult since none of his family members were alive. It was a chance meeting with Uma at the Kovai Medical Centre in Coimbatore six years ago that finally fetched him a kidney. And the donor was none other than Uma. Like every organ recipient, Salil still lives with the fear of infection and organ rejection. It was Uma who asked him to join SMIC so that he could get help at short notice.
SMIC’s upcoming projects include an AIDS rehabilitation centre and a satellite health centre equipped with a mini-operation theatre, X-ray machine, ventilator and mini-pathology lab. They recently launched their website, www.santhimedicalinfo.org, providing lists of national and international hospitals and the kinds of treatment provided for certain ailments.
Uma says she’s indebted to Dr K. Seelakandhan and Dr D. Ganesh of Kovai Medical Centre who helped and encouraged her in her mission. "If they had not provided guidance on how to start such an organisation and what kind of information was to be collected and provided, I couldn’t have done anything." On Dr Seelakandhan’s suggestion, she visited New Delhi and collected information and details from major hospitals. Later, she also travelled across the country collecting information on major hospitals and the services provided by each one of them.
There were teething troubles but she survived and the centre soon started dispensing services. Uma credits her well-wishers for their cooperation without which SMIC may not have been as effective as it is now.
Uma Preman can be contacted at: Santhi Medical Information Centre, Punnathur Road, Kottapadi, Guruvayur, Thrissur Kerala—680 505. Tel: (0487) 2556796. Email: santhimedicalinfo.org