Arunachal doctor who treated special children dies of covid

A doctor from Arunachal Pradesh’s Naharlagun, Dr. Gamba Padu Riba, who went beyond the call of her regular duties to help the needy in Itanagar, succumbed to COVID-19 and multiple organ failure on Tuesday.

After putting up a tough fight for about 37 days in the ICU, she breathed her last on November 9 at the New Delhi AIIMS.

Dr. Gamba and her husband Dr. Komri Riba were members of a New Delhi-based NGO Helping Hands and would often visit special children’s homes and the less privileged for medical checkups, and it gave her immense joy to do so.

“She used to tell me how happy and she felt blessed in serving these helpless/ mostly abandoned children,” said Robin Hibu, Special Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, who is also the president of Helping Hands NGO that strives to help the needy in Northeast India and northeasterners residing outside the region.

“These voiceless disabled and blind children would miss this kind hearted lady, who was an angel to them and left them for heavenly abode by her untimely death,” Hibu added.

The villagers will miss her regular medical camps which she ran under the banner of Riba Foundation in remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh.

Despite her duties at the Tomo Riba Hospital as a senior physician, Dr Gamba always made time for medical counselling and would always greet her patients with a smile, touching the lives of many patients in the region.

Dr. Gamba Padu Riba would be laid to eternal rest at Riba Vila, Naharlagun, as per her wish, informed Robin Hibu.

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