Efforts of a doctor, rights activist bring back stroke patient from Abu Dhabi
The Statesman | 24 May 2025
Samir Bala, a 58-year-old carpenter from Hashkhali area in Nadia district, suffered a severe cerebral attack in Abu Dhabi in 2021 and was admitted to the critical care unit (CCU) of a hospital in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He used to work in a company in Dubai 2014 and later transferred to another unit in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
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Samir had been undergoing treatment in the CCU of the Abu Dhabi hospital almost in a dying condition for more than four years but the company allegedly didn’t provide any financial support for his prolonged treatment.
Frustrated with the gradual deterioration of her husband’s health condition in Abu Dhabi and an unbearable burden, Sabita Bala desperately tried to bring him back to their Hashkhali home but failed initially.
Sabita met senior officials in Nadia district administrations and political leaders belonging to both ruling Trinamul Congress and opposition parties but no one could show her a way-out so that she can get back her husband for treatment in a state government hospital in Nadia.
She met Dr Atindranath Mondal, additional medical superintendent of Kalyani Medical College and Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital in Kalyani, seeking his intervention on how to bring back Samir for his treatment.
Dr Mondal, a local resident of Bagula in Nadia, sent her to Arun Das, a human rights activist, and assured her that he would make all arrangements for her husband’s treatment at the state-run teaching hospital if he is brought back to his Hashkhali home.
After getting all details in connection with Samir’s health condition and non-cooperation of his company Arun wrote to the external affairs ministry, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi about two months and briefed them about the plights of the patient and his family.
Arun also requested the ministry and India Embassy to make necessary efforts to bring Samir to West Bengal.
“The Indian Embassy responded to our letter saying that the validity of Samir’s passport has expired in 2023. The hospital in Abu Dhabi, where he was undergoing treatment, also informed that the patient could not be discharged if his alternative treatment in CCU is ensured in another hospital,” Arun said.
“With the prompt intervention and initiatives of the embassy his passport was renewed and all arrangements were made to bring him to Nadia. It was on 27 April when he was scheduled to land at Kolkata but his condition deteriorated further. Finally, on 8 May he came back to Kolkata and the embassy office in coordination with the hospital. A three-member team of medical experts was also there with him during the entire trip between Abu Dhabi and Kolkata airports,” he added.
The embassy office had also arranged a well-equipped CCU ambulance to take him to the Kalyani Medical College from the airport.
“As a social worker and government doctor I have executed my duty so that the patient Samir Bala can get admitted to our hospital. He was undergoing treatment in the CCU since 8 May when he was admitted to our hospital. Today, he has been shifted to the high dependency unit (HDU) from the CCU because his condition is little better,” Dr Mondal said.