Std XII student battling illness high fever & severe diarrhoeal infection writes biology exam from hospital room

Kolhapur: Even as she fought high fever, giddiness and a severe bout of diarrhoeal infection, Std XII student Rupali Namdev Shisal refused to let her academic year slip away. On Wednesday, the 18-year-old from Sarud in Shahuwadi tehsil of Kolhapur district wrote her biology board examination — not from her designated centre, but from a private multispecialty hospital room where she had been admitted just hours earlier.Rupali, a student of a local junior college, had already appeared for her English, physics and chemistry papers conducted by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. After a week-long gap, her biology paper was scheduled, but her health had rapidly worsened over the past few days. Her father, Namdev, a construction worker, first sought treatment at a local hospital, but with no improvement, rushed her to a hospital in Bambavde on Wednesday morning.While receiving emergency symptomatic treatment, Rupali remained anxious about missing the exam. "She kept muttering about the paper," her father recalled. She knew the exam centre was barely 5km away but reaching there in her condition was impossible.Determined not to let his daughter lose a year, Namdev hurried to her college and appealed to the teachers for help. At the exam centre, verification of student details was under way around 11.10am when officials received the desperate request.Block education officer Vishwas Sutar said the team immediately escalated the matter to board chairman Rajesh Kshirsagar and secretary Subhash Chougule, who granted special permission to conduct the exam in the hospital due to the medical emergency. An exam centre official, Kundlik Patil, and special supervisor Uday Patil were deputed to carry sealed question papers and answer sheets to the hospital.The hospital arranged a separate room and deployed a doctor to remain present during the exam, while CCTV surveillance was set up as required by protocol. "Rupali began writing at noon and continued till 2.15pm. She attempted most of the questions," Sutar told TOI.As Rupali wrote her paper, the mandatory documentation was being prepared simultaneously — a written request from her father, a medical certificate and verification of her hall ticket. Namdev said, "Rupali is still in the hospital but recovering. Her last paper, Marathi language, is on March 7. We hope she will be fit enough to write it in the exam hall. She wants to become a civil servant."Board chairman Kshirsagar said such permissions were granted only in cases of extreme urgency. "If a student is admitted and the request comes in advance, we allow hospital exams. Here, it was nearly impossible for her to reach the centre in such health and that too at the last moment. Sending our staff to her ensured she didn't lose an academic year," he said.