For residents in the remote villages of Mayurbhanj, accessing specialist medical care often means undertaking long, expensive journeys to distant cities—journeys that cost them lost wages and delayed treatments. But for three days this November, world-class healthcare didn’t just become accessible; it arrived right at their doorstep.
In a monumental healthcare initiative, the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) successfully wrapped up the 12th edition of Operation DRISHTI in Rairangpur, the home region of the President of India, Droupadi Murmu. The Mega Multi-Speciality Medical Camp provided free, comprehensive medical care to over 4,000 patients, acting as a beacon of hope for a community in vital need.
A Hospital Under One Roof
Expanding beyond its traditional focus on eye care, this edition of Operation DRISHTI brought together Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Nephrology, Dermatology, Dental, and General Medicine. Every patient was screened, investigated, and treated on-site, guided by Army personnel with trademark patience and warmth.
The numbers speak to the sheer scale of the operation. Cardiology experts attended to over 400 patients, performing 298 ECGs and 406 echocardiograms, ultimately identifying 29 individuals in need of life-saving advanced care like valve surgeries and device implantations. The Nephrology team conducted 341 ultrasounds for over 400 patients, while Dermatology, Dental, and General Medicine departments collectively treated over 1,000 additional locals.
Stories of Restored Vision
The crown jewel of the camp was the Ophthalmology department, which performed a staggering 365 sight-restoring surgeries. Behind these statistics are profoundly moving human stories.
Take 75-year-old Biswanath, for example. For two years, he wandered from clinic to clinic with a complex cataract caused by an old injury. Because his natural lens lacked support, doctors deemed routine surgery too risky. At Rairangpur, the AFMS surgical team took on the challenge. Using a scleral-fixated intraocular lens, they anchored a new lens to the wall of his eye, finally giving him back his sight after years of waiting.
Similarly, 60-year-old Sombari Gope had watched her world slowly go dark due to a dense brown cataract in an unusually small eyeball. The cramped surgical space put her cornea at severe risk, requiring a highly specific 29.5-dioptre lens. Delivering the dense lens manually to protect her eye, the surgeons executed a flawless operation. Sombari left the camp with a new lens in place and a renewed lease on life.
Dedication Amidst the Storm
The camp’s seamless execution is even more remarkable given the looming threat of a regional cyclone. On November 4, Air Marshal Sandeep Thareja, Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), visited the site to commend the medical and paramedical staff. Walking through the post-operative wards, he distributed medicine kits to recovering patients and praised the AFMS team for their unwavering dedication despite the hostile weather.
Operation DRISHTI has previously touched lives from the Himalayan foothills of Dehradun to the borderlands of Jammu and Kashmir. Now, in the lush forests of Mayurbhanj, the AFMS has proven once again that they do not merely hold medical camps—they bring healing, dignity, and light to the darkest corners of the nation.
