While most people stayed indoors for fear of being infected by the Covid-19, the deadly virus could not deter the 62-year-old Mizoram MLA from helping patients in time of need.
He takes delight in helping the needy as he considers the task as his top priority as a politician.
Dr. ZR Thiamsanga, the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) legislator from Champhai North seat swapped his political duties for a doctor’s when a woman in his constituency required an emergency medical attention on Monday.
Thiamsanga, a doctor by profession specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, who gave up regular practice after being elected to the Assembly in 2018, performed an emergency caesarean and helped a woman to deliver a baby in east Mizoram’s Champhai town near Myanmar border.
The MLA got to know about the woman’s condition while visiting his constituency on Monday to take stock of Covid- 19 spread and the loss caused by recent earthquakes.
Champhai is about 194 km from state capital Aizawl.
The doctor turned politician said that he operated on C. Lalhmangaihsangi, a 38-year-old woman from a remote Ngur village in Champhai district, who was expecting her second child, as the medical officer (doctor) at Champhai hospital was on leave due to health issue.
He said that the woman was bleeding profusely and her condition was critical.
She was not in a position to travel several kilometers to Aizawl, he said.
“I was informed about the condition of the woman. I immediately rushed to the hospital and performed an emergency caesarean,” he said, adding that the woman and her baby are safe and sound.
Thiamsanga said that he did it not for fame but as a responsibility because he considered helping the needy is one of his top priorities.
Thiamsanga, who is the state health and family welfare board vice chairman, often puts on his stethoscope to attend to medical emergencies whenever he comes across needy patients while on political duty.
Earlier in June, the Champhai North MLA hit the headline when he walked about 7 km to attend to the ailing policeman, who was guarding the Mizoram-Myanmar border to prevent cross-border movement amid Covid-19 spread.
Thiamsanga graduated in MBBS (1985) and completed MD (1995) from Regional Medical College in Imphal and retired as head of department (Obds & Gynea dept) at Aizawl Civil Hospital in May 2018.
In 2018, he contested on a Mizo National Front (MNF) ticket and defeated the sitting Congress MLA, TT Zothansanga, by a margin of 1,093 vote.