Rourkela: A woman battling with anaemia at the Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) failed to get a bag of blood after efforts by her relatives to exchange the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes ended in vain.
Bharati Munda of Dhipa village under Manoharpur police limits in Jharkhand, however, got a new lease of life after some Canara Bank officials visited various wards in the hospital Saturday and helped patients and their kin exchange demonetised notes.
A relative of her immediately swapped Rs 2,500 demonetised notes for new notes with the bank officials and managed to get a unit of blood. Bharati’s health condition improved after she was administered with blood, a doctor attending to her said. According to sources,
Bharati was first admitted to the local hospital. However, her condition deteriorated due to lack of blood in the hospital. Bharati’s father Chainda Hurad borrowed Rs 11,000 in old currency from his neighbours and deposited them in the bank to get new notes.
A day later, Bharati’s condition further worsened. It was a race against time as her father stood in a queue for over three hours to take new notes from the bank.
His hopes crashed after the bank officials denied to make payment due to unavailability of cash.
As advised, Hurad shifted his daughter to RGH Friday. He somehow managed to administer blood to his daughter with the little money that he had but the doctor again asked him to arrange another unit of blood.
With little hope, he collected Rs 2,500 old notes from his son-in-law Nouchan Munda and daughter-in-law Basumati Hurad to purchase medicine and blood for his daughter. The blood bank officials and medicine stores turned him away, refusing to accept the demonetised notes. Noticing the plight of her family members, Bharati started cursing her fate.
She, however, sprang up from her bed when bank officials arrived in the ward and announced to exchange demonetised notes of patients with new ones. PNN
