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This programme contains some strong language | 0:00:02 | 0:00:06 | |
SHE READS ALOUD IN DIALECT | 0:00:06 | 0:00:08 | |
This boy can't hear the lesson, but he's too shy to tell the teacher. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
He's behind in his studies and without an operation on his ear | 0:00:13 | 0:00:20 | |
he will probably go completely deaf. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
But in rural India, where the poor have little access | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
to medical facilities, there is a unique way of providing treatment to the sick and hope to the disabled. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:34 | |
It's based on the simple concept that if the people | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
cannot reach a hospital, then the hospital should reach the people. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:49 | |
This is the story of a train, a very special train - the Lifeline Express. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:15 | |
The train is known as "The magic train". | 0:01:18 | 0:01:24 | |
Hundreds of poor people | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
who are disabled, who've never seen a doctor, they come. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
They're so trusting. They'll come with a little packet of vegetables, | 0:01:31 | 0:01:35 | |
of flowers and put it in your hand. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
"Yours is a magic train. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
We have come for magic. Make the miracle." | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
The Lifeline Express was the world's first hospital on rails. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
With two fully equipped operating theatres, treatment rooms, offices | 0:01:59 | 0:02:04 | |
and accommodation for the Lifeline crew, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
it uses 70,000 kilometres of Indian railway track to reach the remotest corners of the country, | 0:02:07 | 0:02:13 | |
bringing free treatment and state of the art surgery to India's rural poor. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:19 | |
The train was the brainchild | 0:02:24 | 0:02:25 | |
of Sir John Wilson, a British campaigner for the disabled | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
who founded Impact India, the charity which runs the train. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:34 | |
With the help of the railways and the Government, volunteers and sponsorship, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
to date it has treated over half a million rural people all over India. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:43 | |
Each mission is a complex exercise in planning and diplomacy. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
The Lifeline Express has its own permanent six man staff | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
and they travel with the train and they live on the train. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
The leader of the Lifeline team is Colonel Vishwan, retired. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
And the location for this Lifeline project and home to the Colonel | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
for the next month, is the small District town of Mandsor | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
in Madhya Pradesh, slap in the middle of India. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
And soon, from all over the country, volunteer doctors and surgeons will converge on Mandsor. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:40 | |
Over the next four weeks, they'll perform hundreds of operations | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
and thousands of health screenings right here on platform number two. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:50 | |
And it's all for free. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
The Lifeline Express will change some lives forever. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
And it all begins with a promotion, country style. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:05 | |
MAN SHOUTS IN DIALECT | 0:04:05 | 0:04:06 | |
In villages around the district, the first priority | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
is to make people aware of the train and get the message out. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
After a two day journey, the Lifeline Express slipped into Mandsor Station almost unnoticed. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:47 | |
Each week, a different specialist team of volunteer surgeons will travel here to operate. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:15 | |
First ears, then the polio surgeries. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
In the third week cleft lips, and finally the eye surgeries. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
And it's all taking place on a train in a station in the middle of India. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:27 | |
Padliya Lalmua is typical of over 200 scattered villages in the district | 0:05:39 | 0:05:44 | |
just fifty kilometres from the town of Mandsor. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
Eleven year old Dashrath is the third child of an extended farming family and he's going deaf. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:57 | |
The family own their own house and a field, some goats and a bullock, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
and though it's a hard life, they're not on the bread line. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:08 | |
Dashrath's hearing started to deteriorate after a series of infections, | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
since when, his father says, nothing seems to have worked. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:22 | |
With a referral from his doctor, Dashrath heads for the Lifeline Express. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
It's just an hour and a half by bike across country but it may be the journey of a lifetime. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:26 | |
Sanskar Gardens, normally a marriage venue, has become a registration and screening centre for the train. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:40 | |
Dashrath is one of over a thousand would-be patients | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
with ear, nose and throat problems who have turned up on this, the first day of the Lifeline mission. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:52 | |
But only a minority can ever be operated on. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
And that decision is made by the volunteer surgeons who have come from Delhi. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:02 | |
They will screen every one of the hopeful patients, but there are just four days of surgeries | 0:08:02 | 0:08:08 | |
so the odds are not in Dashrath's favour. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
After the ten minute examination, Dashrath has been approved for surgery on one of his ears. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:11 | |
He now has a file, a number and the operation is fixed for the following day. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:16 | |
He'll stay here overnight in the makeshift ward in the marriage hall. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
And in the morning he'll get his operation. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
On board the Lifeline Express, the team of top Delhi surgeons and anaesthetists | 0:09:38 | 0:09:43 | |
are waiting for their first patients. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
Dr Vikash Malhotra and the team are aiming to operate | 0:09:46 | 0:09:50 | |
on a lot of patients today, but he's quietly confident. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:54 | |
By the time Dashrath reaches the train the temperature on the platform is already over 40 degrees. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:36 | |
The heat is building up to the summer monsoon rains. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
Perhaps it's nerves or the medicine or the heat, but Dashrath is feeling sick. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:54 | |
On the train, the ear operations have begun. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
The most complicated procedures are first on the list | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
and Dr Vikash and his surgical team have set a target for the week. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:28 | |
At 4pm, after waiting on the burning station platform for five hours, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
Dashrath's feeling much better. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
Today, he's going to have one eardrum repaired | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
and the other one will have to wait until he's a little older. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:04 | |
Through this microscope I can see the small hole in his eardrum. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:21 | |
What we will be doing is just putting some chemical | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
along the margins of this hole and sealing it with a paper patch. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:30 | |
The operation was successful and the prognosis is that, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
in just a few weeks, Dashrath's hearing will be nearly back to normal. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
It was a typical day for all departments of the Lifeline Express. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
Dashrath's surgery was just one of 25 ear operations today, | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
and the surgical team are confident of meeting their target | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
before the handover at the end of the week. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
But bad news is coming in on the TV. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
Events in the bordering state of Rajasthan are about to cause a major problem | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
that could upset all of their plans. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
A minority caste are demanding tribal status and calling for better education and better jobs. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:57 | |
They're known as the Gujjars and they've blockaded the main railway line between Bombay and Delhi. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:03 | |
The disruption has caused the cancellation of hundreds of trains | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
including all the doctors' tickets from Delhi. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
It's a major headache for the Colonel and it's put the polio surgeries planned for next week in jeopardy. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:16 | |
No trains. The doctors who left the day before yesterday, remember, they're still in Bhopal. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
Although the trains are still running on the branch line through Mandsor, | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
with the main line closed and the surgeons stuck in Delhi, the polio operations cannot begin. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:39 | |
Dashrath was lucky that his passage through the Lifeline system went according to plan. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:51 | |
And by the end of the first week, | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
the surgeons had almost reached their target of 100. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
But with the rail network in chaos, no-one knows what's going to happen next week. | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
Today, according to the astrologers, is the most auspicious day for a marriage. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:20 | |
Tonight, in every village across Mandsor district, there's a wedding. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:24 | |
Brides on horses, grooms on tractors, it's a time when the whole community shares in the celebrations. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:32 | |
Whatever your caste or religion, it's a matter of honour to ensure your daughters are married off. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:42 | |
Marriages in rural India are traditional, arranged early and normally with a dowry attached. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:50 | |
But for those who are poor and disabled, the prospects of marriage are far from good. | 0:15:55 | 0:16:00 | |
40 kilometres south of Mandsor town lies the village of Daloda. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:15 | |
Like many places in India, it bears the legacy of the polio virus. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:20 | |
Once upon a time, almost a third of all polio cases in the world were in India. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:26 | |
But today that's been reduced to a just a few hundred new cases a year | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
and soon it will be eliminated completely. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:35 | |
Sapna is 17 years old and she lives with her family here in Daloda. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:40 | |
But since the age of two, she's been disabled as a result of polio. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:45 | |
Between the chai shop and the tractor repair shop, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
lives Bharat, a six year old boy who cannot walk at all. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:14 | |
His family is poor, his father unemployed. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
Treatment on the Lifeline Express may be Bharat's only chance to see a top specialist | 0:19:10 | 0:19:16 | |
and to get an operation. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
So his father is taking him on the train to see Mr Meena, | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
an orthotist and prosthetics specialist in Mandsor. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:28 | |
His recommendation could help Bharat see the polio surgeon for a screening. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
But they don't know what, if anything, an operation might achieve or if there is any hope of a cure. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:39 | |
At Sanskar gardens, the polio screenings have begun. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
It's an opportunity for a new prognosis from a top surgeon | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
like Professor Agarwal from Lucknow Medical College. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
He's an esteemed paediatric specialist and teacher and the leader of the team. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:18 | |
And he's the first of the polio doctors to make it through the blockade. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:23 | |
Over the next two days, he'll screen hundreds of disabled people | 0:20:24 | 0:20:29 | |
to see who is suitable for orthopaedic surgery and who is not. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
Bharat has come to Mr Meena for a screening. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
He's hoping to get a referral letter from him for the Lifeline train. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
But it's turning out to be much more intense than expected. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
By midday, Sapna has been accepted for an operation by Professor Agarwal. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:49 | |
But there are conditions. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
She'll be in theatre tomorrow, only if all the doctors arrive in Mandsor and the professor is insisting | 0:21:52 | 0:21:58 | |
that his patients are moved from the converted marriage hall to the district hospital. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:04 | |
And, after a day of screenings, he's called a meeting with the organisers on the train. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:10 | |
You are the responsible person and you are responsible. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
You understand my point? | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
I don't share any responsibility on this issue. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
Colonel has asked me to come from Lucknow. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
You know how much travel that is? | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
28 hours I have travelled by train, only for one cause, to do good work | 0:22:50 | 0:22:56 | |
for the poor people. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
The district hospital in Mandsor serves almost a million people. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
It's short of beds and short of doctors. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:09 | |
But, somehow, the Lifeline Express works its magic | 0:23:09 | 0:23:13 | |
and they manage to clear a ward for Professor Agarwal's polio patients. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:18 | |
With a referral letter from the physio, Bharat's hoping for an operation that will make him walk. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:25 | |
I am sorry, I have nothing to offer. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:22 | |
The point is, it's God's will | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
and if it is God's will, we cannot stop it. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
So don't keep attachment. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
The emotions are very disturbing. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
Just make him happy as far as possible. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
Bharat has finally been diagnosed properly, with myopathy, not polio. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:48 | |
Under a harsh regime of physiotherapy in the coming years, he may yet gain the ability to walk. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:55 | |
But it will take a miracle to cure the boy. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
GUNFIRE | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
The Gujjar protest has taken a violent turn. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
The main railway track remains blocked by 60,000 angry protestors and with so many trains cancelled, | 0:25:20 | 0:25:27 | |
the Government has sent in the troops. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
So far, 39 people have been killed, and it doesn't bode well for the Lifeline train. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:36 | |
24 hours after screening, and despite the protests, Sapna is in pre-op on the Lifeline Express. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:53 | |
By bringing the doctors on lengthy detours and avoiding the rail blockade, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
the Colonel has managed to scramble a skeleton team for Dr Agarwal. | 0:25:57 | 0:26:01 | |
So now he can operate on the village girl from Daloda, for whom the stakes could hardly be higher. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:08 | |
Professor Agarwal typifies many of the volunteer surgeons who join the Lifeline Express - | 0:26:31 | 0:26:37 | |
taking time off from big city hospitals or private practices to work with the poor for free. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:43 | |
And this is his tenth year. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
And I'm very God fearing. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
Every time I feel somebody's watching. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
If I do something wrong, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
don't think that nobody's watching. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
Over the next three days, Sapna and 19 more polio patients | 0:27:41 | 0:27:46 | |
were operated on by Dr Agarwal and his skeleton team. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
It may take some time before their plaster casts are removed permanently, | 0:27:50 | 0:27:55 | |
and only then will they find out | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
whether their operations have been successful | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
and whether they'll ever walk normally again. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
As the project reaches its halfway point, the Gujjar demonstrations are still causing disruption. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:22 | |
The surgeons are coming from Lucknow and the anaesthetists we're trying to get | 0:28:22 | 0:28:26 | |
from Madhya Pradesh only, either from Bhopal or Indore or any of the medical colleges. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:32 | |
That effort is on. The only thing, we realised yesterday, they'll not be able to make it, so we are... | 0:28:32 | 0:28:37 | |
Colonel Vishwan faces the problem of how to get his polio surgeons home | 0:28:37 | 0:28:42 | |
and to get the plastic surgeons to the Lifeline train. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
All planes are full and the alternative routes are overbooked. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:50 | |
50 kilometres north of Mandsor town, on the edge of Sabakehda village, | 0:29:05 | 0:29:10 | |
lives a small community at the bottom of the economic ladder. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
Deeply religious, illiterate and dirt poor, they live a hand-to-mouth existence. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:25 | |
Mohan Lal's family were delighted when their first baby, the boy Shiva, was born to them. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:37 | |
But all was not well. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
Shiva was born with a cleft lip. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
For Shiva's family, news of the Lifeline Express | 0:30:23 | 0:30:26 | |
has given them hope of an operation to rectify the cleft lip. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
So, having successfully passed a local screening at their primary health centre, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:39 | |
the whole family heads for Mandsor station and the Lifeline train. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:44 | |
There are no guarantees he'll get his operation, but they believe that Shiva is a God, | 0:30:46 | 0:30:51 | |
and that he's blessed, and that the doctors on the train will change his life forever. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:57 | |
At Sanskar gardens, the lip screenings have started. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:19 | |
Dr Faisal is one of the three plastic surgeons who have finally made it | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
to Mandsor after a circuitous, 36-hour train journey. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:28 | |
With only a few hours sleep, he now has to screen | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
hundreds of would-be patients for corrective lip surgery. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
And Shiva is in the first batch who are waiting to see him. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:41 | |
For Shiva, corrective surgery on his lip | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
would be completely unthinkable, had it not been for the Lifeline train... | 0:31:47 | 0:31:51 | |
..yet some Indians believe that such surgery is undesirable | 0:31:53 | 0:31:57 | |
because the body you are blessed with is the gift of God. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:01 | |
Amongst the peoples of India, religious beliefs and observances | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
are central to life. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:40 | |
Whether Hindu or Buddhist, Sikh or Muslim, | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
all believe that life is sacred. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
And its strictest adherents are the Jains. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
Nimbod is an old established village in the south of the district, | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
and home to a large community of Jains. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
They believe that all life, no matter how small, is worthy of respect. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:08 | |
THE CHILDREN SING LOUDLY | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
Orthodox followers wear a mask, | 0:33:12 | 0:33:16 | |
so they will not swallow any living creature or insect. | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
Eleven-year-old Vishal comes from a typical Jain family | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
who have lived in this village for generations. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
BELL RINGS | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
Vishal was also born with a cleft lip, but it never used to bother him. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:39 | |
Tomorrow, Vishal and his father will travel to Mandsor, | 0:34:52 | 0:34:56 | |
hoping to get an operation on his cleft lip. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
Despite the Gujjar troubles and all the train cancellations, | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
so far, the project has completed 99 surgeries. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
And with the colonel's emergency planning, | 0:35:31 | 0:35:33 | |
nearly all the medical volunteers eventually arrived. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:38 | |
So today is the first day of the cleft lip surgeries | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
for Doctor Faisal and his team. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
I have been on the Lifeline in previous two projects, | 0:35:45 | 0:35:49 | |
and I love to come here. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:51 | |
Every time Colonel Sahib calls us, I am the first one to volunteer, | 0:35:51 | 0:35:57 | |
and I'm always enthusiastic to come here and do some work. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
But that work is suddenly interrupted by a new crisis. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:06 | |
At Mandsor district hospital, the entire staff have gone on strike, | 0:36:06 | 0:36:11 | |
because somebody hit a doctor. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:13 | |
The police have moved in with riot gear, | 0:36:13 | 0:36:15 | |
as such incidents can easily escalate, | 0:36:15 | 0:36:18 | |
and until the crowd disperses, the hospital is closed. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:23 | |
But at Sanskar Gardens, the clock is ticking away at the surgeon's time, | 0:36:24 | 0:36:29 | |
so the screenings must continue. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
Vishal's operation has been approved, along with baby Shiva. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:38 | |
BABY CRIES | 0:36:38 | 0:36:41 | |
But with no medical staff willing to work | 0:36:45 | 0:36:47 | |
until the demonstrators have been dispersed, | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
even the ambulance has been locked in, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
and now the Lifeline patients are stranded. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
The ambulance, which was coming from the hospital, | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
was supposed to bring the patients from the transit camp to the train. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
That is...er...really making us... | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
a bit problematic. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:15 | |
A couple of hours later, the hospital protest is over, so Vishal and Shiva | 0:37:18 | 0:37:23 | |
can be delivered to the operating theatre on the Lifeline Express. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
SHIVA CRIES | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
Finally, Dr Faisal and some of the best plastic surgeons in India | 0:37:41 | 0:37:46 | |
can use their expertise, and work their magic. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:51 | |
Each surgery may take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, | 0:37:51 | 0:37:56 | |
if everything were all right, | 0:37:56 | 0:37:57 | |
and for Shiva's father, it's an anxious wait. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:01 | |
If there is any inadequate muscle repair, | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
it's going to give a very unhealthy scar, and the child | 0:38:06 | 0:38:11 | |
might not get another chance to get a revision done. OK? | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
And if the muscle repair is right, | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
the pieces of the two parts of the lip | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
will automatically fall in the normal positions. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
It's like a jigsaw. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
-DOCTOR SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE -Vishal. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:32 | |
There is muscle suppression inside. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
Baby Shiva is brought to his father. | 0:38:56 | 0:38:58 | |
It's ten o'clock, and he's already the sixth operation of the morning, | 0:38:58 | 0:39:03 | |
and Vishal is out of surgery too. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
All today's patients have been transformed | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
by the Lifeline experience, and so too have the volunteer doctors. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:13 | |
It's very difficult, it's very difficult. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:16 | |
But when it's good, it's always worthwhile. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
Small children used to bring paintings and drawings for me | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
when they were operated, and... the love and affection that you get | 0:39:23 | 0:39:29 | |
from such kind of patients is just fantastic, | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
I mean... I cannot express that in words. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:36 | |
SHIVA CRIES | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
After 48 hours, baby Shiva and Vishal Jain have their scars examined, | 0:39:45 | 0:39:50 | |
their plasters changed, and if Doctor Faisal approves, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
they can go home. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
For baby Shiva and his family, | 0:40:10 | 0:40:12 | |
it wasn't just Doctor Faisal who made Shiva well, it was their God. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:17 | |
So the family is making a pilgrimage to a holy shrine | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
to offer their prayers for Shiva's salvation. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:27 | |
-DOCTOR: -Religious? Yes, I am religious. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
Everyone in India is religious! | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
-Yes, everybody is religious! -Underlined and...! | 0:40:33 | 0:40:36 | |
They're praying God. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:37 | |
Vishal Jain will suffer no more jibes at school. | 0:40:46 | 0:40:49 | |
His self confidence will grow, and his faith has been strengthened. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:53 | |
THUNDERCLAP | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
In an isolated area of the countryside, | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
Shiva and the family have begun their observances at the holy shrine. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:08 | |
A local shaman has been engaged to conduct the ceremony. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:16 | |
Shiva's family believe that his operation was only possible | 0:41:16 | 0:41:20 | |
by divine intervention, and that he really IS a God. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
Tonight, by offering up their thanks, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:30 | |
they pray the Gods will bless his life forever. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
For the train staff, it's been three weeks of continual operations. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:52 | |
In the last four days alone, the plastic surgeons | 0:41:52 | 0:41:54 | |
have completed over 50 lip operations. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
Now the plan is that they leave in the morning, | 0:41:57 | 0:42:01 | |
and the eye surgeons should be arriving by train from Delhi... | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
..God willing. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:08 | |
THEY SING | 0:42:12 | 0:42:15 | |
Tonight In Sabakheda village, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
73-year-old Mangunath and his wife Gajribai are celebrating. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:26 | |
They're almost blind with cataracts. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:35 | |
They're penniless, with no possessions, no home, no children, | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
and they rely on an extended family to support them. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
But tonight, they're happy. They've both got doctor's letters | 0:42:45 | 0:42:51 | |
for an eye operation on the Lifeline Express. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
HE GROANS | 0:43:31 | 0:43:34 | |
At Sanskar Gardens, the response to the Lifeline Express | 0:43:55 | 0:43:58 | |
is almost overwhelming. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:00 | |
Thousands have turned up for the eye screenings, | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
with every kind of eye problem, from children with squints, | 0:44:07 | 0:44:10 | |
to the totally blind. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
For Mangu and his wife, | 0:44:22 | 0:44:24 | |
this is probably their last opportunity for eye treatment. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:28 | |
They're old and confused, but with a little help, | 0:44:28 | 0:44:31 | |
they make their way through the screening process. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
Without an operation, Mangu and Gajribai face a future | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
where they can't possibly work and will have to depend on charity alone. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:50 | |
Outside, the crowd has grown so large that it threatens to overwhelm | 0:44:57 | 0:45:01 | |
the volunteers and security, | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
and the police have to be called in to keep order. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:06 | |
The main line between Mumbai and Delhi is still blocked, | 0:45:12 | 0:45:15 | |
and the Gujjar protests have now spread to Mandsor. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:19 | |
THEY CHANT ANGRILY | 0:45:19 | 0:45:22 | |
Now, the colonel is having to find ever more inventive routes | 0:45:28 | 0:45:32 | |
to bypass the blockade and to make sure the doctors get here on time. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:37 | |
A few of the eye surgeons have made it from Delhi, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:44 | |
but there's still no sign of any anaesthetists. | 0:45:44 | 0:45:47 | |
Heading the team is Doctor Zia. | 0:45:50 | 0:45:52 | |
I'm a practicing strabismologist and a neuro-ophthalmologist. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:56 | |
Strabismologist is a squint specialist. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
That's my area of specialization and training. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:02 | |
And after the age of 40 - this is for senile cataract - | 0:46:02 | 0:46:05 | |
after the age of 40, they start getting opaque, | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
so that is what we basically call a cataract. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
Something that comes in the way. Cataract means "waterfall" in Latin, | 0:46:10 | 0:46:14 | |
"cataracta," from the waterfall. Something white | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
that comes in front of the eye, waterfall in front of the eye. That's what it means. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:21 | |
Cataracts are the world's leading cause of blindness. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:29 | |
Some estimates are that almost 20 million Indians suffer from it. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
-But it is curable. -..E...S...L... | 0:46:33 | 0:46:37 | |
So, Doctor Zia and her two senior surgeons | 0:46:39 | 0:46:42 | |
are getting on with as many of the cataract screenings as possible, | 0:46:42 | 0:46:46 | |
without a full team. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:47 | |
They're hoping that medical support will arrive tomorrow | 0:46:47 | 0:46:52 | |
in time for the surgeries. | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
Mangu and Gajribai are here to get their blood pressure checked, | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
and for their final pre-op examination by Doctor Zia. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:12 | |
As the head of the team, only she can decide | 0:47:12 | 0:47:15 | |
if they'll get their operations or not. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
Gajribai is through, but Mangu's tests | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
show he has high blood pressure, and Doctor Zia is worried | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
it might cause complications if she were to operate. | 0:48:11 | 0:48:15 | |
Mangu's operation is off, and Doctor Zia | 0:48:36 | 0:48:39 | |
is growing increasingly concerned that if the anaesthetists | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
don't get here soon, there will be no eye operations at all. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:47 | |
As tensions begin to mount on the train, | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
there's more bad news for the colonel. | 0:48:52 | 0:48:55 | |
Faced with a long and uncertain train journey from Delhi, | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
the anaesthetists have pulled out. | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
So the situation on the train has gone critical. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:09 | |
Without them, Doctor Zia cannot operate. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:13 | |
Luckily, the colonel has persuaded an old friend, Doctor Tripathi, | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
a semi-retired anaesthetist from Mandsor, to step in. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:29 | |
But the problem is, he can only work part time. | 0:49:30 | 0:49:33 | |
I am out of this after this. No, I'm not into this. | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
No, it's not I, your Caesarean... | 0:50:09 | 0:50:11 | |
It's a camp, it's a national level camp, it's got to be done properly. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:15 | |
We cannot do it without anaesthetic cover. It's for them to discuss. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
You discuss this with them. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
I'm not irritated. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:25 | |
I don't want to talk any further. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
Talk it over with them. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:32 | |
Talk it over with them. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:35 | |
-Bye. -Absolutely. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:37 | |
Even with the blockade on the main line from Delhi, | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
local train services through Mandsor are still unaffected. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:19 | |
The Lifeline project is in its last week. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
The Gujjars are in talks with the government, | 0:51:25 | 0:51:27 | |
and there is hope of a settlement soon. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
But on platform number two, | 0:51:32 | 0:51:34 | |
the Lifeline Express is faced with abandoning the cataract surgeries | 0:51:34 | 0:51:38 | |
unless the colonel can find more anaesthetists | 0:51:38 | 0:51:42 | |
and negotiate a truce between Doctor Zia and Doctor Tripathi. | 0:51:42 | 0:51:46 | |
THUNDERCLAP | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
Tonight, the first of the monsoon rains | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
bring some relief from the intense heat. | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
STORM RAGES THROUGHOUT | 0:52:15 | 0:52:18 | |
Gajribai will have her operation in the morning, | 0:52:38 | 0:52:41 | |
but if Mangu loses his sight, | 0:52:41 | 0:52:44 | |
then she will have to become the breadwinner... | 0:52:44 | 0:52:46 | |
..and for this dignified old man, it's a harsh reality to face. | 0:52:48 | 0:52:53 | |
After a busy night of phone calls, | 0:53:37 | 0:53:39 | |
the colonel's determined efforts have paid off. | 0:53:39 | 0:53:42 | |
Doctor Zia and Doctor Tripathi have reached an accord, | 0:53:42 | 0:53:45 | |
and two more anaesthetists have been secured, | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
so tomorrow, the eye surgeries can begin. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:51 | |
Gajribai had pleaded for her operation to be given to Mangu, | 0:54:06 | 0:54:11 | |
but she was told it wasn't safe for him... | 0:54:11 | 0:54:14 | |
..so her operation is next on the list. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
Doctor Zia has had to scale down the number of operations to 150, | 0:54:27 | 0:54:31 | |
because she still doesn't have a full team. | 0:54:31 | 0:54:34 | |
Nevertheless, this is her first day of surgery, so she's happy again. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:40 | |
DOCTOR ZIA SINGS IN HER OWN LANGUAGE | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
SHE CONTINUES SINGING | 0:54:53 | 0:54:56 | |
Under local anaesthetic, and using state-of-the-art surgery, | 0:55:07 | 0:55:11 | |
Gajribai will get back the vision in one of her eyes. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:15 | |
But she also knows her husband will slowly go blind. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:18 | |
Helpless people, you know, who have come with expectations. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
Something is promised to them. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:30 | |
It doesn't really matter to them what we think or what we do, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:34 | |
what matters to them is that they have a problem, | 0:55:34 | 0:55:38 | |
and they have come here with hope. | 0:55:38 | 0:55:41 | |
God knows, they suffer a lot. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:42 | |
Gajribai's operation was successful, and in a few weeks' time, | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
she will be able to see clearly enough to work again. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:55 | |
Over the last month, the Lifeline Express | 0:56:01 | 0:56:03 | |
has performed its minor miracles. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:06 | |
Thanks to the volunteer surgeons, doctors and nurses, | 0:56:06 | 0:56:10 | |
thousands more lives have been touched by the magic train. | 0:56:10 | 0:56:14 | |
In four days, the plastic surgeons | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
performed more than 55 cleft-lip surgeries. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:28 | |
Vishal's scar is healing well, | 0:56:28 | 0:56:30 | |
and Doctor Faisal even got to operate on a God. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:34 | |
Dashrath was just one of 80 ear surgeries on the train, | 0:56:34 | 0:56:39 | |
and thanks to the operation, he can hear better, | 0:56:39 | 0:56:42 | |
and now he's doing really well at school. | 0:56:42 | 0:56:44 | |
Doctor Agarwal and his team performed 19 polio surgeries, | 0:56:46 | 0:56:51 | |
including Sapna's operation. Now she's out of plaster, | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
but it will be months before she'll be able to walk | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
without the aid of a crutch. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:01 | |
Doctor Zia and her team eventually operated on 148 cataract patients. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:07 | |
Gajribai was lucky, but Mangu was not. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:11 | |
Despite all the problems, the Lifeline Express | 0:57:13 | 0:57:16 | |
managed to screen thousands of people | 0:57:16 | 0:57:19 | |
and performed over 300 operations, which have changed peoples lives. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:25 | |
Now Gajribai has decided it would be best | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
if she and Mangu move back to the village where they were born, | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
to their native place, | 0:57:31 | 0:57:33 | |
and the Lifeline Express is also moving on to its next mission, | 0:57:33 | 0:57:38 | |
a thousand miles away from Mandsor, | 0:57:38 | 0:57:40 | |
but where the people share the same hopes and the same dreams of a cure. | 0:57:40 | 0:57:44 | |
The train has become the symbol of a miracle. | 0:57:46 | 0:57:49 | |
A hope. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:52 | |
And when it goes away, we've had people sleeping, | 0:57:52 | 0:57:55 | |
lying on the sleepers, won't let the train go away. | 0:57:55 | 0:57:59 | |
"Don't go away. My mother is sick, my father is sick." | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
They don't know what to do. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:04 | |
This train is blessed. | 0:58:04 | 0:58:06 | |
Somebody is up there, watching us, telling us what to do. | 0:58:06 | 0:58:10 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:41 | 0:58:44 | |
Email [email protected] | 0:58:44 | 0:58:47 |