Medical

Amma says, " It is the nature of the body to become sick. Therefore,it's important to undergo required medical treatment. In order to know God, it is necessary to preserve the physical instrument-the body. Therefore, hospitals and treatment are not incompatible with spirituality. They are crucial in maintaining the body, which is a means to know the soul( Self)."

In the early 1990's, Amma told her monastics that she had a vision of creating a very specialized hospital that would offer the most modern medical care to the poor and the destitute. In her travels throughout India, Amma came across thousands of adults and children who suffered from heart problems. They were on long waiting lists for four to seven years and would probably never get treatment. Thus, born out of Her infinite compassion is the super-specialty AIMS hospital.

There are many medical programs and institutions inspired by Amma that provide professional treatment and relief to the sick and the destitute. These medical institutions and programs range from charitable hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, medical outreach programs, disaster relief programs, tribal welfare programs and so on.

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS)

• Not-for-profit 1,300-bed hospital provides free care to the poor
• From 1998 to 2006, 751,098 patients received free treatment
• 6 medical specialty institutes, more than 30 departments, and 10 specialty labs

Amma had a vision to create a hospital in Kerala where the poor could receive the very best medical care possible from highly skilled physicians and nurses, and in an atmosphere of love and compassion. This was the birth of the highly sophisticated Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS). AIMS Hospital in India.

AIMS Hospital:

- Not-for-profit 1,300-bed hospital provides free care to the poor
- From 1998 to 2006, 751,098 patients received free treatment
The Hospital has Six medical specialty institutes, more than 30 departments, and 10 specialty labs. -

AIMS Community Services:

- Fully-equipped ambulances for remote areas

- Special outreach projects, such as diabetes prevention

- Telemedicine for hospitals and village resource center

- Four branch hospitals provide free care

- Training of hundreds of tribal villagers as healthcare workers

- Clinics and hospice for terminally ill patients

- Ayurveda clinic, hospital, and research center

- Free health screenings and medical camps in remote areas of India

Until now, the people of India have had minimal options for affordable, highly specialized health care and poor people especially have had little choice. This 800-bed tertiary referral hospital offers sophisticated medical care, specialized services and procedures not generally available at routine hospitals. Over 50% of treatments are charitable. Read about the total number of free and subsidized treatments given at AIMS.

The miracle of AIMS is the extraordinary achievement of ordinary people working in the voluntary sector to bring to fruition a world-class, high-tech hospital. This major undertaking is a story filled with love, trust and wonder. Letters from patients at AIMS.

1. The Hospital Complex
The hospital consists of 600,000 square feet of clinical treatment areas in six towers surrounding a central atrium.

The six towers accommodate the wards, operating and recovery rooms, intensive care units, catheterization (tube insertion) laboratories, blood banking facilities, emergency services, and outpatient and endoscopy surgical units. Serving these functions are well-equipped diagnostic laboratories, an extensive imaging centre, centralized hospital gas systems, uninterruptable power system, central sterilization, and a modern dietary kitchen. Outlying buildings contain the electricity generation plant, a laundry, incineration plant, a morgue, workshops, medical gas plant, and a hostel for patients' families.

2. The Spirit of Compassion
The spirit of compassion inspired by Amma is reflected most in the services AIMS gives to its patients. Many who seek help are very poor, often being referred to AIMS by doctors, branch ashrams and Amma's medical camps. The fundamental principle behind which the hospital operates is compassionate service, not just providing this quality of care to the poor, but teaching the value of selfless service to the staff. The hospital has started a post-graduate training program in medical technology and nursing and is training staff currently serving at the various medical clinics of the Order for a life of service in the medical profession. The hospital has received affiliation with the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital for Hospital Management Training and offers a bachelors degree in nursing and medical lab technology.

AIMS Community Services

• Fully-equipped ambulances for remote areas
• Special outreach projects, such as diabetes prevention
• Telemedicine for hospitals and village resource center
• Four branch hospitals provide free care
• Training of hundreds of tribal villagers as healthcare workers
• Clinics and hospice for terminally ill patients
• Ayurveda clinic, hospital, and research centre
• Free health screenings and medical camps in remote areas of India

Amrita Kripasagar
A hospice is an institution where specialized care for the terminally ill is provided in an atmosphere of love and compassion. In a society where only a handful can afford the high cost of treatment and personal care, the majority of terminally ill patients are considered a burden by both family and society. These individuals often undergo intense physical and psychological suffering and are left to die a death lacking in dignity.

In 1995, Dr. P.C. Alexander, Governor of Maharashtra State in northwest India, inaugurated the Amrita Kripasagar Hospice, the third such institution of its kind in the country. The special significance of Amrita Kripasagar is the spiritual solace and atmosphere of love and compassion it provides to all resident patients.

Amrita Kripasagar Hospice consists of a main building with accommodations for 50 patients, medical facilities to relieve pain and lessen the suffering, kitchen, meditation and prayer hall, residential quarters for in-house medical and nursing staff, mortuary and crematory.

The hospice is well connected by rail and road and is close enough to Bombay to be convenient, while at the same time away from the noise and dust of the metropolitan area.

Amritakripa Charitable Hospital

This charitable hospital located at Amritapuri, was inaugurated in 1996 and functions as a primary health care center for the villagers of the nearby fishing community and as a hospital for ashram residents and computer institute students and staff.

This facility has an emergency room that provides advanced resuscitation and initial care of acute medical and basic surgical emergencies. It also cares for the daily medical needs of the hundreds of ashram visitors. Specialty outpatient clinics are held completely free of cost to the needy public on a weekly basis in the fields of ophthalmology, otolaryngology (ENT), orthopedics, dermatology, gynecology, and endocrinology/diabetology. A weekly clinic and dispensary is provided in homeopathic medicine. The hospital is equipped with a laboratory for basic hematology and blood chemistry, urinalysis, etc. The pharmacy dispenses free medicines to more than one hundred daily, approximately 80% of which comes from sample donations.

The patient population includes over 8,000 villagers from the local fishing community, nearly 2000 ashram residents, and more than 1,000 students and staff members of the AICT computer institute and about 200 construction workers. Consultations and medicines are free for the poor. The doctors see about 200 patients daily but on Devi Bhava days and festivals they work throughout the night. Medical care is provided to an average of 5,600 patients each month.

Two moree such charitable hospitals have been recently inaugurated with Amma's guidance. The most recent one was in Kalpetta for a tribal community. A new surgical wing was opened in Rameshwaram district, in southern India that was funded by the President of India, Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalaam who donated his one whole - year's salary for the project. He was inspired by the dedication and the urgency with which Amma's admirers work to benefit the society.
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Medical Outreach Programs

In order to benefit the real needy in remote areas that can't get to city hospitals, AIMS and several other M. A. Maths across the country do mobile clinics and conduct camps at these locations on a frequent basis.