Himmatrao Bawaskar: Scorpion Stings, Snake Bites, 48 years of Selfless Service as a Physician to Society

Physician Himmatrao Saluba Bawaskar, has come to the light for his pioneering medical research work on the scorpion sting envenomation treatment that helped to save millions of lives of poor, marginalized communities not only in rural India but also in several other countries in middle east, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, where poisonous scorpion stings are prevalent. His treatment approaches drastically reduced fatality rate to 1%. At his private hospital in a small town, Mahad located in western Maharashtra in India, he has conducted research with his own funds which led to innovation and created inspiration among physicians to treat scorpion sting victims, those were previously neglected and untreated for centuries.

Bawaskar, awarded Padmashree (4^th highest Indian civilian award) in 2022 by Government of India for his research on scorpion sting envenomation and significant contribution to the society as a physician. Once in a TV interview he said “Because of Padmashree award, I got now recharged and have energy to do research and service for the society for next 20 years”. Although he is world renowned physician for his scorpion sting envenomation treatment, his 48 years of selfless research on snake bite envenomation, B12 deficiency, chronic renal failure, thyroid dysfunction, mental complexities, diabetes, COVID-19 management at rural settings are profound among many others.

Passionate physician even at the age of 75, Bawaskar was born to illiterate farmers’ family living in small village named Dehed located in Jalna district of rural Maharashtra, India. In 1950s’ undeveloped India was just emerging as an independent nation, so in villages existed extreme poverty, where child pursue education was not considered as normal. Most people were engaged in agriculture, labor work, and education was look as rich peoples’ dish. Although born in very poor family, education was his passion from his early childhood. His father used to say, “my child will take an education”, thus resulted in his nickname “Barrister”, which also resulted to his autobiography title “Barristers’ brat”. He obtained MD degree in India from BJ Medical College, Pune in 1981 under extremely hard circumstances. During his path to study as a child, he often performed part time incessant jobs such as work in book seller shop, buffalo washer, which engaged him most of the time and hardly get any time to complete his homework and make any friends, leading to isolation among his peers. Even during university course, one year he had undergone psychiatric treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. His focused learning with full concentration to grasp most of the study in short time were assets during his entire education journey.

Rural healthcare always remains as a question in the whole society in India although more than 60% population resides in rural area. In cities, several ultramodern hospitals with five-star high-end sophisticated instrumentation facilities do exist. But when it comes to rural settings only few physicians serve to the society and hesitate to play their role as a doctor, even considered as a noble profession globally. Bawaskar took challenging life to walk on the path always he had decided and considered himself to serve his medical knowledge for the rural society who is in urgent need. Upon his MBBS graduation in 1976 he joined primary health center, Birwadi village, Maharashtra where he first acquainted with scorpion sting envenomation and its clinical sign with symptoms at very young age. Later on, upon completion of postgraduate MD, purposely requested transfer at Rural hospital Poladpur, located just few kilometers away from Birwadi to continue his passionate research on scorpion sting for which he born for. This is the place where medical research miracle happened due to his courageous treatment approach and recovered first patient from poisonous scorpion sting in 1983 with his physician wife Pramodini. With his continuous efforts Bawaskar settled in Mahad town where he opened his own private hospital and research center. There he started to admit people upon scorpion sting at that time most peripheral doctors were afraid to admit patients who had scorpion sting envenomation symptoms and let patients go from clinic to clinic until death at government hospital.

Beside scorpion sting his clinical research concerning snake bite also received promising outcomes. Snake bites and scorpion stings are still neglected as a disease of poor, Bawaskar once said this in their Lancet correspondence, “Snake bite in India: a neglected disease of poverty”, and supporting organizations are working ahead to prove his concerning statement. Upon request by State government of Maharashtra, Bawaskar had conducted training to all medical officers in state as a result of it the case fatality rate due to snake bite was considerably reduced to less than 4% from previous 30%. Therefore, National treatment guidelines for snakebites were established under his guidance.  His extensive study of chronic renal failure in farmers due to drinking heavy metals (cadmium and lead) contaminated water in a clay land as a result of extensive fertilizer and pesticide use were assessed in more than 200 villages. Cause of Dental fluorosis because of excessive fluoride content (more than 3 ppm) in drinking bore well water was analyzed and resulted in prohibition of such a water for drinking application. Mental health is diverse issue in rural India “The complexities of mental health in rural India” highlighted by him in Lancet correspondence. Emerging problems such as malnutrition, non-communicable diseases are getting common in Indian children, he said in “India’s forgotten children” in Lancet correspondence.  His astonishing statements should be taken seriously in several parts of the world where child healthcare is a major concern.

Bawaskars’ work on scorpion sting attracted attention of several international scientific bodies and experts. He was invited by Ciba foundation London in 1994 and Morocco government at Rabat in 2009 for discussion and guidance of scorpion sting management. Beside Padmashree, he has been awarded with several Maharashtra state and National awards to his throne.

Medical corruption and unauthorized use of physician’s power were highlighted by Bawaskar in several media outlets such as on TV, newspaper, interviews, journal articles etc. It is important to acknowledge that Bawaskar lifetime clinical and public health research is done without help of external funding agencies either government or non-government organizations. Upon receiving Padmashree, he still awaits contribution from Government of India with research facilities and training of young physicians to further continue his lifelong research.