View from a Hospital Bedside...

When Rajkumar died and Bangalore's anti-socials ran riot i never thought the madness would hit so close to home. My dad got stuck in a Bangalore University guesthouse without food, water and electricity and coz he is diabetic had to eat and was forced into having some real crap food procured from god knows where. Anways he landed home with stomach ache, which "upgraded" to pneumonia! I first took him to the medical college coz he knew the gastro professors there and the great work done by the doctors and the nurses at medical college despite the huge crowds of ppl, the absence of infrastructure and overall shabbiness around them really touched me...the medical college is one place where I regret I was never gifted with enough perseverance to become a doctor!!! But then, when I see young doctors, I somehow manage to get depressed...these young people had to slog their way to get thru the kerala entrance while we engineers breezed in...and finally of the 600 odd MBBS grads(nowadays i think its 1000) coming out of Kerala just 10-20 make it to the PG's every year...such a waste of brilliance which anywhere else in the world would have been encouraged to pursue their studies to their hearts content but then these are some of the contradictions we sort of reconcile with in India.

Anyways like most people nowadays who just dont feel safe at a govt hospital, he asked to be moved to a private super-speciality(i wonder what that means...does super-speciality stand for the huge bills) and there despite the great infrastructure and lesser number of patients, the lack of efficiency and a galling lack of urgency really pissed me off. I can cite so many examples...my dad is pretty touchy on food and within a day he got fed up of kanji and kept demanding and getting spicy, oily food from the hospital itself until the doc-in-charge found out...i wonder where the dietician was!!! The professor at medical college was telling me how by just charging Rs.250 for an ultrasound the gastro=department was abe to finance its operations completely without depending on govt aid besides giving free medical care to deserving 20% of patients while private hospitals charge anywhere between 1000-1500 for the ultrasound. But then I guess people who can afford to pay the money shouldnt complain, i guess...but it strengthens the role and importance of goverment hospitals in health-care more than ever. The prof at medical college on coming to know I was a US-returnee and preparing for the civil services talked to me for over an hour opening my eyes to several changes he was crusading for within the govt and how he had been able to lay down the beginnings of computerization, his experiences at the Global Investor Meet and more...I think I'll leave all that for another post.

Even in the US, private medicare and health insurance is a big scam, so there's no point grumbling about it. There was this tragi-comic incident of my usc mallu-junior who fainted when he had fever and his roomies getting scared rushing him to hospital and after 3 days there, which among other tests included almost a 10 inch long injection for testing for meningitis(in his words..."aliya, aa sooji kandappazhe pedichu njan...kuniche nirthi ente spinal fluid ootti eduthade...i cried for help....i shouted out to the nurse that i was admitted with just a fever and she mas making a mistake...i went dizzy after that for 5-6 hours"...on getting back home he was thrusted with a bill for $26000 of which 90% was covered by insurance and he had to put in $2600...angry at his roomies who took him to hospital he said..."dey, ineem njan chaakaan kedannalum $1000 koduthe enikke indiayilekke oru two-way flight ticket eduthe thannaal mathi"!!!! We used to laugh so much about that but secretly dreaded paying a visit to a hospital ever since. Anways, the incidents of the last week forced me to leave the comforts of the home and into the heat and humidity, with my mom away I had to take things into my hands and I was doing a good job balacing my study and the hospital until the viral flu mowed me down a few days back. I have said earlier how much my friends keep motivating me...anways all this reminded me of an email one of my friends, motta sent in, some time back to pep 5-6 of our schoolmates who were almost done with their house surgency at tvm medical college and were beginning to prepare for the PG Medical Entrance and were unsure if the effort was going to be worth it. Moving over to the email which I have just copied and pasted...didnt feel like taking even a word out...

"hi guys,
its been a real long time since i have sent in a mail to the group and this time i am doing it to thank a few guys of our batch whom i now consider the most important to all of us...THE DOCTORS IN OUR FAMILY!! A few months back one of my friends met with an accident.this is one among my other set of friends in town.we took him to medical college casualty.you know how crowded the place is,we knew no one there.then i thought about chucks,i gave him a ring,he was on his way back home after 20 or 30 hours of work,a very tired guy.but....he came back,helped us,took care of a lot of things that would not have been possible had he not come,all these for a guy whom he not knew not till then,but just because he was my friend.

then on the 13th of this month,all of us class mates had met,including chakks, raman, paili, chairman and the others.i had to go home early so i bid goodnight and was on my way back home when another of my friends called me up and told me his father was being taken to medical college,he was crying over the phone,there was no one with him,i rushed to the hospital,his father was in a very weak condition,his eye sight had reduced ,he couldnt stand up nor speak,his mother was also ther,i was wondering what i could do.then i thought of the doctors in our family .i rang up chucks and spoke to pili.he told me he knew one of the guys sitting in the casualty,he told me he will ring him up and let me know .5 mins later he rang me up and asked to meet a guy called sunish,paili had already spoken to him.i went met sunish,a gem of a guy,he helped us out(he had been in hospital for almost 24 hrs continuously working,u can imagine what sort ofg a position he was in then)thnax to his efforts we were able to shift his father to a ward that night itself.i know you guys know how hard it is to get it done so soon. i left hospital by 11.30 that night.i knew paili had night duty on that day.at about 12 i got a call from paili,he told me he had met my friend's father and gave me a small briefing on what must be the reason for his disease.i was so stunned. eda paili had gone and seen him just because i had told him he was my friends father,i was so happy,i conveyed the message to my friend who was so releived. two days later paili called me up and gave me another feedback on his fathers situation.today i had gone to see uncle and i came across sunish(the doctot i mentioned earlier)he came with me,went through uncles scan reports and all and told us not to worry and that everything was fine.he also promised to come and monitor uncle's progress whenever he had time.

GUYS,i just realised how important these doctors were to all of us.just because i told them these guys or people were someone i knew they put in all their effort to do what was best.i know they are doing the same to all the people coming there and that too in circumstances most unfavourable.i conside their conditions unfavourable cos no ac rooms,no rest,no holidays, hours and hours of work, their working conditions, all unfavourable compared to our working enviorns...i just dont know how to thank you guys,CHAKKA, PAILI, RAMAN, PASHU, ASHISH, wherever you guys are i know you guys are doing the best job among the whole lot of us and your work is the most admired not just by our batch but the whole lot of people around you. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST AND REST OF US ARE REAL PROUD TO HAVE U GUYS AS DOCTORS IN OUR FAMILY.THANX GUYS...THANX A LOT"