Dawar Army Camp of Snow Leopard Brigade airlifted a pregnant lady stranded at Dawar for last four days. Presently, the Gurez Valley is cut off from the rest of the Kashmir Valley due to high snow levels at Razdhan Pass. The prevailing bad weather conditions for last four days did not afford any window of opportunity to the Army to evacuate the patient by air.
On 01 Apr 2020, Dawar Army Camp of Snow Leopard Brigade received a requisition from civil administration for evacuation of Zytoona Begum, resident of Satni Village located very close to the Line of Control who had been critically ill. She was a case of Molar Pregnancy with excessive bleeding resulting in low Haemoglobin and needed urgent surgery. She was under the close monitoring of civil and Army medical team at the Hospital at Dawar. Finally, the patient was evacuated from Army Helipad in Gurez at the first opportunity provided by the inclement weather in late afternoon of 02 Apr to LD Hospital in Srinagar.
The threat of COVID-19 further added to the problem and procedures of evacuation. Dawar has a civil hospital with limited advance diagnostic and treatment facilities. In these difficult times of the Corona pandemic, the medical team of Dawar Army Camp and Sub District Hospital in Gurez has achieved a high degree of cohesion and synergy with an aim to provide medical aid to locals and Army personnel alike. With the pooled resources of Army and Civil Administration, a quarantine facility has been created at Dawar in which five civilians who had recently returned from Bandipora have been quarantined.
On receipt of distress call from civil administration, gallant soldiers of Snow Leopard Brigade activated the Gurez Helipad at short notice and the critically ill patient was continuously monitored before she could be evacuated by helicopter.