Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Men in khaki go beyond call of duty, save elderly citizen’s life

- Pankaj Jaiswal pjaiswal@hindustant­imes.com ■

LUCKNOW : At a time when most people are doing their bit to stay safe in the time of lockdown to check spread of Sars-Cov-2, UP police are also helping people with food, water besides providing other assistance to the people in need.

Going beyond their call of duty in Lucknow, four policemen, while they were on ‘assisting people’ job, rushed to a hospital to save the life of a stranger by donating blood to him.

They responded to a man urgently needing blood on a WhatsApp group they were members of.

“I was distressed as the blood bank that had supplied blood to me easily had started facing problem under the lockdown,” said Dr

Nilesh Kumar, a government veterinary doctor posted in Siddharthn­agar.

“My ailing father Bhagwan Das, 68, was on dialysis at a private hospital in Lucknow. This was much before the lockdown. On March 18, we shifted him to the Vivekanand­a Polyclinic. His condition was critical and the hospital immediatel­y admitted him. The blood bank gave us blood for transfusio­n twice. But on March 27, his health deteriorat­ed but by then blood was not available without first donating it and no friends and relatives could come under the lockdown,”said Dr Nilesh.

“In such a crisis, an acquaintan­ce messaged someone. Soon, four policemen in their uniform walked in on Sunday, donated a unit each and left,” he said.

A government spokespers­on identified three of them as head constable Dilip Patel, constable Avnish Upadhyaya and constable Pradip Gangwar. The name of the fourth policeman could be establishe­d.

“Our requiremen­t was two units, they donated four. We now have two units in reserve,” Dr Nilesh added.

 ?? HT ?? ■
A cop donating blood.
HT ■ A cop donating blood.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India