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This Month’s Profile
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Dr
Aditi Chaturvedi
Palliative Care Specialist
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| Dr Aditi at a
Ganga Prem Hospice cancer clinic in
2013 |
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A pharmocologist by education,
Dr Aditi Chaturvedi has a keen interest in palliative
care, particularly in providing pain relief to
cancer patients. Living in Srikot, in the Pauri
Garhwal area of Uttarakhand, Dr Aditi teaches
at the Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali Government
Medical Sciences and Research Institute. Despite
her full time job at the medical college, managing
her home and a young eight-year old son, Dr Aditi
finds time to offer her services as a volunteer
to pallative care initiaves. "I feel that
all people who are dying should be able to die
in peace," says Dr Aditi.
Although specializing in
pharmacology, Dr Aditi had a leaning towards palliative
care and pain management as both her parents died
of cancer. She studied palliative care at the
regional cancer centre in Hyderabad, and is now
planning to pursue further studies in palliative
care via distance education. There are also plans
to start a palliative care centre at Srikot, where
Dr Aditi lives currently.
The young doctor has a supportive family, as her
husband, Dr Harish Chaturvedi, shares her interest
in palliative care. Teaching at the same medical
college in Pauri, in the anatomy department, Dr
Harish also teaches meditation with his wife.
Once a month, they drive down to Rishikesh to
give their services free of charge to patients
at the Ganga Prem Hosipce monthly charitable cancer
clinics. "Even though I am a pharmacologist
and from the field of allopathy, I feel that relief
to the terminally ill should be given by all means,
whether its via allopathy, ayurveda, meditation,
physiotherapy, acupuncture, or any other complimentary
medicine," says Dr Aditi.
In her spare time, Dr Aditi
likes to play badminton with her son and wishes
to learn to play the guitar.
Ganga Prem Hospice Team
Our team includes patients,
families, friends, medical professionals, nurses,
social workers, volunteers, spiritual advisors
and our support team.
Our team is gradually growing but, as we are still
a small team and do not have all the staff that
we will need in the future, most of our members
work in more than one capacity. The main categories
of the team are as follows:
1. The Patient and his
Family and Friends
An important theme of palliative medicine is that
the patient is the focus of care. At Ganga Prem
Hospice the patients are, therefore, given repeated
opportunities to actively participate in team
decision-making. Not doing so can result in care
plans that are inappropriate and less likely to
answer the patient’s needs. For the same
reason the patient’s family and friends are
also important members of the team.
2. Medical Professionals
The professional palliative care team at the in
patient facility of Ganga Prem Hospice will include
cancer specialists, general practitioners or regional
medical officers, non-allopathic specialists and
therapists who will be full time or part time
workers associated with the hospice.
The cancer specialists are in overall charge
of the hospice and address medical as well as
administrative issues. Other medical and secretarial
staff will form part of their team.
a) The Medical Director of Ganga Prem Hospice:
Dr AK Dewan, M.S. M.Ch. (surgical oncology)
Other cancer specialists: Dr DC Doval, Dr Ashish
Goel
Other doctors: Dr (Mrs) Rupali Dewan (gynaecology),
Dr GS Vats, Dr Pallavi Purwar, Dr Aditi Chaturvedi
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