How Ladakh’s 1st Gynaecologist Changed The Face Of Women’s Health In India’s Cold Desert

All over the world, it’s the people who don uniforms that are respected the most. They wear those uniforms for a reason, they don’t just wear them to reap benefits out of their designations. The people who wear uniforms are respected the most because they are serving humanity in one form or the other. Most of the time, all we think of when it comes to people wearing uniforms are army, navy, air force, policemen, etc. Well, there is another set of people who don uniforms and serve humans all their life irrespective of the country they are born in, irrespective of every other division that is known to mankind, be it caste or creed. We are talking about those noble souls who don a white coat — yes, we’re talking about the doctors here. Isn’t being a doctor one of the noblest of all professions? You serve the society and its people, you heal them of their health problems.

Just like the soldiers who take the oath to fight for their nation and safeguard it, doctors too take the Hippocratic Oath to serve the people and practice medicine ethically. Wonder why we’re talking all this now? Well, we’re doing so because we want to introduce you to one such doctor in India who did more than what her duty as a doctor demanded her to. She is none other than Dr. Tsering Landol, who was the first practicing gynecologist in the world’s coldest desert, Ladakh. Her groundbreaking work has made her an inspiration for all the practicing as well as aspiring doctors worldwide. Even today, at the age of 79, although retired, she still works in collaboration with the Ladakh Heart Foundation. She screens, guides, and counsels women, especially pregnant women. She teaches them how to take care of themselves and their babies inside the womb in Ladakh’s extreme conditions. Let’s look into her deeply inspiring story. Let’s read about her together.

Her Journey To The World Of Medicine

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Dr. Landol had six siblings in her family. She was born to an agrarian family where none had any kind of formal education before her. She completed her primary schooling in Moravian Mission School and went on to pursue matriculation at a Government High School in Leh.

When asked about her decision to become a doctor, Dr. Landol answered, “There was a doctor, an assistant surgeon, who had come to Leh when I was a child. He always had a stethoscope around his neck wherever he went. After this caught my attention, there was no looking back. I wanted to become a doctor.”

It wasn’t a cakewalk though. For Dr. Landol it wasn’t only about focusing on studies to fulfill her dream. The bigger challenge that she had to face and live by was to accumulate the study resources for her dream. Her school lacked quality faculty in the science department. Also, all her textbooks were in Urdu but her examinations had to be written in English. She sailed through all the hurdles and made her way into a Government Medical College in Srinagar where she chose to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology. She says that it was her father who always pushed her to study more about women’s health.

She Became The First Practicing Gynecologist In Leh

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Dr. Landol served in Srinagar for a few years to gather experience. In 1979, she then joined Sonam Norboo Memorial Hospital, Leh as the first gynecologist practicing in this region that boasted of extreme climatic conditions. When asked about how exciting this new journey was for her, she said, “Today, it is difficult to comprehend the difficulties that doctors had to undergo while performing surgeries. The facilities were a bare minimum and deliveries would take place in freezing temperatures. A doctor had to be versatile, improvising with equipment during child delivery. There was no regular electricity, and the heating system was non-existent. During winters, we would use a Bukhari, a wood-burning stove, which is particularly toxic during child delivery because of the emissions. Using anesthesia was also a problem near the Bukhari since it’s highly inflammable.”

Dr. Landol added that the doctors at the hospital shared a solid camaraderie and always helped each other while performing tough procedures in extreme conditions. The major hurdle that the doctors faced during that time was not having an adequate heating system. Dr. Landol recalls that it was the kindness of some foreign NGOs with the help of which the hospital managed to make hamam rooms for the labor room and the operation theatre (1).

The Most Important Element In Medical Profession — “Communication”

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Dr. Landol was deeply bothered about the condition of women around her in terms of hygiene. She says that due to the freezing climatic conditions of Ladakh, women would never bathe, they would bathe once a month. Also, they would consume food which was kept out for days — such things posed a major health concern even more so in the case of pregnant women.

But the root of all major concerns that posed problems for doctors like Landol to provide efficient treatments was the social stigma that women practiced when it came to talking about their personal concerns. But with the assistance of other doctors, and her ability to communicated with the people of Ladakh in the local language, Dr. Landol urged the women to be expressive about their health concerns.

Dr. Landol’s achievements are the efforts she has put to promote healthy family planning and encourage institutional deliveries in Ladakh. She also played the part of a pioneer in broaching topics of puberty and healthcare in schools so that girls would start taking care of their bodies right from a young age.

In an interview with an academic back in 2017, Dr. Landol said, “The trust between a doctor and patient is very important… I have been here since 1979, and now you can imagine I am delivering the grandchildren of my own patients!” Her contribution to the medical field gained her the honor of the Padma Shri award by APJ Abdul Kalam in 2006. We need to take inspiration from people like Dr. Landol and use our education towards giving something back to society, don’t you agree?

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