BECAUSE I SAID I WOULD !! If you cant keep your promises, you shouldnt make them in the first place. This candid remark resounded when I received an invitation of a marriage ceremony from one of my patients Akash. Few months back during ward rounds he Sounded very rude, Ive had enough of your insinuations, stop it, just cut it out! throw me out,why dont you keep my bed in corridor,I cannot pay your daily bed charges, The daily reminder of dues is extremely disquieting Doc...I have stayed just because of the promise you made to me on day one ..,I know I would have lost my limb otherwise and ................!! Aakash kept on grumbling. It was not the mere blathering . It instantly hit me right between the eyes. it was me only , who had promised to this badly injured man,When he became conscious and tended to blare and blame for his pic pocketing as he lost seven thousand rupees from his cut pocket after his accident. Perhaps he lost his consciousness and later money too..some body at accident place might have snitched from his pocket. No wonder it could be a police or ambulance man at the accident place sir,one of my emergency staff pointed out.. Hello man!! Whats your name,I tried to calm his nerves with poultice of an affable smile, Akash srivastava .. Doc I have lost all my money..please help..some body from your staff must have picked up from my pocket..Akash almost sobbed . Look Akash ..“What trouble have you brought to this hospital , i ..asked. Akash kept quite Your serious injury ,and you were brought by police and at arrival you were drowsy .. I answered myself. I dont think any of my hospital staff would dare to do this, and any body even if tries to do this he will certainly be caught because every place in the hospital is under camera surveillance .. & Dont worry we are going to scan it beyond doubt . Now come to the point,you have bled profusely and your wounds are still oozing, we have replaced blood loss with lot of i v fluids but now you badly need blood transfusion for doing any intervention for your bleeding fractures. To be very honest ,Surgical intervention for these fractures is equally imperative and urgent to save your limb. I obviously persuaded yet Akash didnt take a blind bit of notice of what I said. Listin Akash ! Dont waste any more time racking your brain about your lost money, I got irritated still kept my voice soft..see you were hit by a truck was beyond help but we will certainly try to help you out by every means. Your injuries are not simple ones,this could be fatal or might lead to unending morbidity. I was trying hard to realise how urgent he requires blood and primary fixation of bones because of open injuries. I dont have money to pay hospital right now,and even I cant assure you for your future payments .i am in a real stew Doc!! Akaash groaned out his financial crisis & that gave me pause for thought. Nevertheless I couldnt make up my mind to deny Aakash work. In a sense it was a real trauma Emergency. Denying any eligible patient from a chance to save life and limb would be a criminal offence & I would hardly take an hour or so to salvage . I thought . I wont be able to pay your exorbitant dues,you see Doc!! ,Aakash literally warned me before I could take him for O.R . Whether you pay my fee or dont pay is neither here nor there as far as Im concerned but you will have to see other overheads in all honestly , I said . Doc!! it is completely out of the blue, Im really scarred about my limb. Akash humbly said and lowered his head... i can only do my best.period!! I said .when all is said and done I shaked the hand with Akash and took him to operating room. Not too mysterious though, addiction of doing surgeries till wee hours definitively added quality to my work,but catching an arduous work at middle watch made my anaesthetist little dreary,and he started watching the clock,I have an early morning doc,mumbling to himself..but it went unheeded as I was already involved in my surgery it, I went home as the dawn approached, with contented sigh!! Very next morning Akash was shifted to general ward , from surgical icu as he became stable after surgery though painful but looked happy with my work and approach , during my ward rounds “I’m sorry for blaming your hospital I just couldn’t do, and I’ve hurt myself by hurting you.” suddenly he became very apologetic ,sir I want to talk to you personally whenever you have time..aakash whispered in my ear. I hope you win your Battle . Your compound fractures with such a large wound is a major issue .Im keeping my fingers crossed for you. You never know the outcome of these injuries. Now the Post operative care is equally imperative as the immediate surgery was , so i had to explain the prognosis with word of caution before I could leave his bed. Akash never talked about his lost money issue and even I couldnt get time to discuss the same issue with my management..but this matter remained in my mind till his discharge .. Next few days I got busy focusing on another important patients and ,same weekend I flew for the Singapore for my Masters course ,on arrival there was no bad news about his dressing ..still I wanted to have a look ,with my own eyes , and his wound was absolutely fine for secondary closure ,we are now going to finally close it things couldnt be better aakash..You should be happy now..I added even i felt quite glow of self-satisfaction . No dice doc, unfortunately we are not able to arrange money .. I just wanted to share my sorrow, if you allow me. “Sure, why not!” I just couldnt say no to him. Money doesnt grow on trees. And without money I could see there is impossible to get treatment as so many things involved even if you dont ask for your money ..please discharge me I will take rest of treatment in my Distt hospital , Isnt little awkward, Getting discharge in a half done job, you will never convince me of what you say if you will not tell me the truth behind, I asked Akash . Its just my helplessness sir, my father retired from roadways services,and has long been recognised as a patient of drug resistant tuberculosis of chest , and i always saw him eating medicine and coughing almost throughout the year, we got into terrible fix ,anyhow he could managed a marriage of one sister,&remained one just scraped through a proposal as she had to run the gauntlet of her skin disease for years though it never proved to be a leprosy, yet stigma remained .. we have therefore been compelled for many years to give up all. finally when she got engaged , we never thought this accident will put our life in real jeopardy . Naturally I was rather abashed with the whole narrative, and at any cost decided to complete his treatment. And assured once again to go ahead with rest of plastic surgery work..Akash opted for it, it took another week to heel his wound. And for the same he was buying medicine from the store but he ignored hospital dues repeatedly.. Hospital management took it seriously and stopped his nursing and medicine for not paying hospital dues..I didnt know about this new development until I reached his bed..he sounded very rude & reminded me of what I literally forgot my post Singapore visit If you cant keep your promises, you shouldnt make them in the first place his voice trembled with outrage . and what rather much to my dismay theyve called off wedding of her sister.... jolted me for the worse . At any cost I decided his discharge quite forthright ,Accounts was called to settle his dues accordingly. Isnt enough to cheer you up I asked Akash? His face softened into a grin..and off course ..I couldnt deny , his suave request to deposit at his convenience He wondered and bowed in reverence for my instant approval as he never expected the same so easily. What else you want? Go home and yes any negligence would cost you dear!! .. Its been more then three months,his invitation of her sisters marriage and the note attached to it jogged my memory of Akash stay in my wards .. Dear sir Its been a while since I got discharge from your hospital,couldnt come for follow up, finally I have started walking few steps.. Tolerating a rude patient, who made a lot of hue and cry about his lost money, whose sister marriage got cancelled ,must be your rare experience!! Will you ever let it go in one ear and out the other? I am really ashamed for my behaviour and this is the one reason for not coming to you though you never mind it and you did more then what We were expecting ..sending you a marriage card as a token of respect along with a request for a poor guy who is diagnosed some malignancy of his limb, and supposed to be getting married same year .Doctors in medical college advised Amputation.. I wonder if you could treat and save his limb,father of a poor guy would be meeting you with reports .. we enshrine you and your work in our heart!! Thank you Akash .. I just wanted to delve into all reports he brought!! OSTEOSARCOMA...found in biopsy reports, MRI also telling the same story....deadliest of all bone cancer!! Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. The, if it like you, it takes the rest.” How true the saying is. Parents were rocks,they knew the prognosis without telling... Still some hope did remain in their in teary eyes. I didnt want to tell to parents straightaway .but certainly I would say the truth to Akash !! I thought and asked for Akash number !! Please dont compare your injured limb which was reparable to a cancerous one that too perilous sort..I straightaway told to Akash . He is about to endure something difficult, nine months of chemotherapy with awful side effects and even after that he might face amputation !!till how long he will be on crutches even after his cure I cant promise I added. Any spread or relapse would cost his life..sorry Akash I cant promise any thing very hopeful this time I repeated.. In whole conversation I forgot to congratulate Akash for his sister marriage as my thought was occupied with the referral to some good cancer institute ..but how will this poor fellow meet out expenses !! Unfortunately health insurance is still a new concept in India except for the organised sector employees.but who will take care of these unorganised, unaware , unfortunate ...society,I couldnt help but feel. When you get a minute, My son would like to have a word with you. Father of a cancer patient requested. Nonetheless meeting sarcoma patient,though i didnt want as I was not prepared, and how I could tell him.Despite all hope in hell ,I did! See young man ...many of you have done it and made it through. Time passes, do what you need, stay strong and see the end of the pain in sight. I explained,just for the sake of the hope set before him. I Wish I Could Have Done Something for this guy too.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 17:46:04 +0000
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