Patna: The health department has formed a three-member medical team to study a bed-ridden tribal villager from Jharkhand state who started walking hours after being administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Dularchand Munda, 44, a resident of Salgadih village from Bokaro district, had been bed-ridden for the past five years after he met with a road accident leaving him with severe spinal injuries. In due course he also lost his voice.
Family members took Munda, the lone earning member, to various hospitals in the state spending around Rs450,000 on his treatment, but in vain. Ultimately, his family lost hope of his recovery.
Earlier this month, the local community health centre in-charge Dr Albela Kerketta convinced his family to get Munda vaccinated against COVID-19. On January 4, a health worker went to his house and gave Munda the Covishield vaccine. Following this, family members were surprised to see the bed-ridden Munda walking with the help of a stick and also regaining his voice.
“He had been lying lifeless for the past five years but now we can see him walking and talking to us. We have been told this happened after being administered Covid vaccine. This is nothing short of a miracle,” local village council chief Sumitra Devi told the local media.
Bokaro civil surgeon Dr Jitendra Kumar said although the incident is surprising, everything is possible in medical science. “Everything is possible in medical science and I have formed a medical team for study. The team will examine what kind of reactions happened in his body and why he recovered so fast after getting the vaccine,” the civil surgeon said.
Community health centre in-charge Dr Kerketta said he had seen the medical report of the villager. “He had severe spinal injuries and was unable to move. His recovery is nothing more than a miracle but accurate information will come out only when the medical team completes the study,” Dr Kerketaa said.
Munda said he was feeling very well after getting the Covid vaccine. “I can move my legs, walk and even talk to the family members,” he told the media.
Last week, an 84-year-old villager from Bihar Brahmdeo Mandal had been caught taking as many as 11 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by using different identity cards and cell phone numbers, prompting the authorities to register a case against him. He claimed his chronic back, waist and knee-joint pains disappeared soon after he was given the COVID-19 jabs.
The man who went underground out of fear of getting arrested has threatened to commit suicide if taken in custody. He has been accused of misusing the health system.
Taking seriously his threat to commit suicide if arrested, the local district superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar has directed the local police not to send the man to judicial custody and grant him bail at the police station itself, reports said.
