When little charities come as a “Blessing in disguise”
By Dr Anuj
One evening, while occupied with some work in the chamber of my Microsurgery Centre, I was rattled with the noise of sudden commotion coming from outside. A villager dressed in very rustic and filthy attire was standing with a small child, in his lap. He had a mucky linen bag with blood stains. The child was in extreme pain, and crying very loudly. I was flabbergasted to see the contents of the bag when the man handed it to me. It had the amputated hand of the child from the level just below the left shoulder. The hand got amputated when the three year old child was playing around some water drawing concoction, and was caught accidentally in the belt of the machine. The man wanted me to do re-implantation of the severed limb. The man was penniless with very meagre money in his pocket. He fell down on my feet and pleaded with folded hands, to do the surgery.
I looked at the face of the child, and was swept away by sheer emotions and sensitivity. I had just returned to India after undergoing rigorous training in Microsurgery, at the best Microsurgery institution at Houston, USA.
It soon dawned on me that the “Supreme Power” above was testing me. Not only was my ‘skill’ at test, but my ‘quench’ for making money too was in question. I accepted the gauntlet, and my assistant and the anesthesiologist decided to perform the surgery free of cost. As luck would have it, I was successful in re-implanting the hand after a six hour long intense toil.
My joy knew no bounds when the child got his hand restored. It was a different feeling of ecstasy, far different from what one experiences with his or her first surgical feat. My joy stemmed from the sheer ‘Faith’ and ‘Belief that the child’s father had reposed on me. That was the first successful re-implantation operation in the entire region, rather ‘State’. Today that child is in early thirties and leading a normal life.
It is sad to hear people say that the relationship between Doctors and Patients is deteriorating since it is not true at all. The need of the hour is to build faith in the psyche of the sufferer, and speak the language that he or she can comprehend… We are the “healers and the givers”.
That day, I made no money, rather spent a considerable sum from my pocket. But I felt very rich and accomplished as I could manage to live up to the colossal faith of the rustic man, besides being instrumental in restoring a big naive smile on the face of the child. The little charitable act turned out to be a “Blessing in Disguise” for me, and I am thankful to the Almighty for granting me this opportunity to make my life all the more worthy.
