18/2/2018 Dr Anuj
I slept late at night, following a small party with the usual razzmatazz. I had barely doused in my much awaited slumber when my mobile rang, showing an unknown number. There was a desperate person speaking in local dialect…
‘Is it Dr. Anuj?’
‘Yes, it’s me’
‘Doctor Sahab, my daughter’s hand is crushed in the table fan, she is bleeding, can I come to you right now?’
The man was howling, and I could feel the uncontrollable turmoil he was envisaging at that moment. I looked at the watch, it was 2.30 a.m.
My eyes were soggy and head groggy because of the dose of my favourite single malt in the party. I looked at the lady by my side, my wife of course, who was also fidgety for being disturbed in the wee hours of her sleep. I took exactly ten seconds to decide and asked the desperate father to bring his ailing daughter to my centre.
‘Doctor Sahab, I will take almost 45 minutes to reach your centre.’
Well, did I have an option??… No!!
I had to get up, change to my hospital overall and walked my way to my centre, which thankfully is in my premises only to wake my lazy night staff to do the preparation for the emergency.
My adorable and much needed sleep was sacrificed at the beck n’ call of my professional commitments, and instead of feeling the warmth of the quilt, I was sitting in my chamber’s chair shaking my leg and spinning my head.
Did I do all this to make money????
No… certainly not came the answer from within..
No money in the world could buy my sleep that I desperately needed at that hour. I would not trade it for any wealth or happiness or gain.
But there was only one thing that made me sit in the chair through those frustrating minutes and hold me awake…that was “Humanity”.
The cry of the weeping father, and the dropping tears of his daughter made me fight my pleasures and get buckled up for the Hand surgery and Microsurgery that I was supposed to perform on that ailing patient…
I am the “healer”. People fall on my feet when I join their amputated hands to function. I cannot trade that internal happiness with any money in the universe…
I certainly don’t do all this for money…yes, money is important, but only to take care of my daily chores and family needs and assignments…
As Doctor, I simply cannot switch off my phone before going to bed, like all people do, and cut off myself from the cries and miseries of the world. Don’t I deserve sleep as a common man does, after a hectic demanding day??
It is widely and rightly prophesized that one shouldn’t sleep with the cellphone around since its harmful radiations can really be hazardous to health…
While we preach our patients about the harmful radiations that the mobiles emit, we ourselves don’t practice what we preach for the simple reason that we need to keep ourselves available for those in need, distress and pain. Keeping our phones off would
Well, ain’t we Doctors, human beings??? why do we take so much of risk ??….
It is because we have to be 24×7 available for heeding to any mishap or trouble anytime and anywhere.
After almost an hour long wait, the patient finally arrived. The girl was barely six years old..her tears had dried up, and she was just sobbing in the lap of her father. It took me almost two hours to fix her partially cut three fingers. It was six in the morning when I came out of the operation theatre, and asked for a cup of tea from my domestic help. I asked the father of the girl to deposit my fee. Before surgery, the father told me that someone was bringing the money. I was in no mood to waste time for money as the cut fingers were devoid of blood, and needed urgent microsurgical procedure. The father of the patient looked at me with almost distrust and anger when he heard the fee, which was very nominal to me, but probably too much for him.
‘You are cheating me and charging exorbitantly for the minor stitches that you have given’…the man ended up paying just twenty five percent of my fee that too as if he was doing some ‘ehsaan’ on me.
Did I have a choice? Will any other business or profession give the comfort of paying according to your will??
I am certainly not a hooligan to fight and expect my payments with power of my fist. I let the man walk out with his daughter, without grumbling or showing displeasure. With me and I am sure with countless doctors all over the country, this may have a routine thing…we deal with emergency situations every day, and in such crisis times, money literally has no role…the attendants also rush to the hospital. with empty pockets…nobody has money sitting at home for emergency situations like this..The only exception being the corporate and the elite class.
We all are here to make a living, and desire a decent living, providing the best to our family with some savings for ‘our’, emergency situations.
Since time immemorial, Doctors have been put in a class and pedestal, close to God… our Hippocratic Oath also prophesizes sermons, making us do things that are above the reach of common man.
I do, and I know that we all ‘doctors’ do our best in treating the suffering patient. But, we are also humans, and not immune to unforeseen and inadvertent complications and errors…
I don’t say that there is fairness everywhere. But please do not paint everyone with the same brush. I have spent several sleepless nights with mayhem and turmoil, not knowing the outcome of the microsurgical procedure that I performed in the day. I get equally concerned and wakeful for the positive results, as the patients or their attendants. It is not a question of money or reputation..It is the concern, and challenge to one’s own self, where the dexterity and expertise is in question.
I have virtually shed tears when once I put my entire strength and could not save the hand of a fourteen years old girl that got chopped off in a fodder cutting machine. Contrary to the notion that Doctors are an insensitive breed, we happen to be extremely sensitive, since it is the ornate of passion that connects us with the ailments and the sufferers.
We are stable and not emotionally liable, while doing our work. My hands did not shake when I was putting stitches on the split forehead of my darling baby daughter. We need the faith and total submission from our patients. Patients who come to us with total faith and belief, get the best from us and go smiling.
There is another flipside..Patients who don’t trust, and consult several other doctors to quench their quandary, end up getting less from us…
We all are on a journey, and it is the earnest desire of every Doctor to cure those in pain and need, by being with them and giving them the right advice and treatment. We are no God, nor His messenger… and we don’t aspire to be one…We are there to transfer energy to your body to make you fight the battle of your destiny.
As Doctors, our life is pledged to the well being of our patients, and we leave no stone unturned in putting our heart and soul into our treatment.
All we need is your faith and love…..
(Dr Anuj is a noted hand surgeon and microsurgeon. Presently serving as the Director of the Microsurgery Centre of Agra, he is a recipient of the prestigious P. N. Wahi Gold Medal for Pathology and B. C. Roy Gold Medal for Medicine.
