Today was a strange day to say the least.Our day started with Parwati getting extremely restless on the moderate amount of oxygen which was available.We finally had to opt for intubation and bagging to get her going.By the middle of the afternoon we had got her insurance in order and so was able to cart her to a bigger unit for the much needed HRCT/CTPA and a good ICU care.Vikash offered to accompany her and Vijay went along for the paper works that would be required.She belongs to the Musahir community which is a community of rat-eaters.She has been safely transferred to a tertiary care centre by God's grace,her care covered by the insurance.Parwati was not happy to leave our hospital so I had to invite her back to visit us with her new-born once she was well.Her father the old man almost shizophrenic in his response to all the trouble we were taking 'did not sound grateful for all the help we were meting out which left some of the staffs bewildered ,especially the ones who were with her through night and day knowing that they would not be able to give anything back.We all had become used to his responses and used to take it with a pinch of salt but it struck me that we often forget that this is exactly where our riches lie and what Christ has called us to.
After the drama of the morning,I walked to the OPD with extra calm that can only come by the grace of God ,grateful for the commitment of the colleagues who are willing to walk the extra mile.
In the OPD I had the patients new and old,some I thought had just registered to pour their heart out and so I listened to their life stories of pain ,loss and somatisation- expressed as sighs ,tears and sometimes just hopelessnes.You counsel,you pray ,you try and understand the best you can.
I have been seeing a few army jawans who are immediately distinguished by their sense of discipline and the way they present themselves.One such jawan came with a skin lesion on the face,so I took a picture of the lesion to get an opinion from Dr Molly,a good friend and a dermatologist.I took his number.Dr Molly was quick with her opinion but the man's phone is always out of range.He was supposed to go to either Jharkhand or Srinagar the next day.
I finished my morning OPD well after one and was walking to my quarters for lunch when I noticed a cart with a baby lying on it and a gentleman was standing by the side.I asked after the patient and was told that he was asked to wait since the OPD had closed for the morning.I said not and immeidately carted him to the casualty which was when I realised I was looking down at a face of a fully grown man of around forty or so and better part of his structure was the face.the trunk was stuck to the face ,the chest almost non existant ,the pelvis was missing and his groin was a maze,no feet.Hands were two coiled wires on either side with a few fingers jutting out.Phocomelia perhaps.
He had presented to the OPD with urinary retention.He brought my attention to the fact that his bladder was almost touching his chest.As I got talking to him,he shed a tear and expressed his difficulty in eating food because he had lost all his teeth due to medicines.I made a note to myself to talk to my dentist colleagues about making dentures for him.I kept his phone number and the address.
Once catheterised his companion took him home.This is a patient registered under our disability programme and our colleagues minister to these patients in various forms.
We see wretchedness,poverty,pain,bondage ,all around but we see the hand of God and his ever present help at different times.
We see heart breaking corruption,backbreaking religion which does not value ethics within it's realm...our hearts ache with pain for our fellow brethren but more so for our beloved country.
We ask ,'How can they not have the fear of God in them?'
That is when the answer resounds,'but they do not know God,'
The ball is still in our court.
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