I woke up to a usual Saturday morning looking forward to a scheduled consultation for my son at Apollo Hospital Bannerughatta that turned chaos when I saw my dad in excruciating pain, diverting us to prioritise rushing him to the same hospital.
We quickly grabbed some food that we ate on our drive from home to the hospital to handle the uncertainty of how the day will unfold. We dodged every pothole and maneuvered all speed breakers to make the driving less painful for my dad to reach the hospital.
At the emergency, the doctor on call attended and organized the wheelchair for my dad. My mom accompanied him as I went along with my son to park my car. We entered the hospital with all precautions followed for COVID. The team in emergency immediately swung into action.
We saw many machines come to life as soon as they got plugged into my dad. After stabilizing him, they shared their plan of action with a long list of tests, protocols, and consultations.
Meanwhile, leaving my mom with my dad, I had to register my son for his consultation with the General surgeon Dr. Ravishankar Bhat. My son appeared confused with all this as his first trip to a hospital left him dazed, and he insisted on my presence with him. I shuttled between my son's recordings of vital stats, Outpatient billing, emergency, Pharmacy, insurance counter, and admission. With all the running around, I was not feeling guilty for missing my morning workout schedule.
After meeting his doctor, his surgery got scheduled for the coming Monday. My son shared his complete surprise upon meeting a doctor who asked more questions about his future study plan than anyone he ever interacted with. He kept repeating how astonished he was to interact with a doctor who spoke so politely to him and making his whole journey of his surgery seem less painful. He quickly switched to saying, 'Ma, I only have one day to prepare mentally for this surgery ' he also documented his COVID test by asking me to take pictures. To our relief, as I write this blog on the intermittent Sunday, his results are Negative. He can go ahead with his surgery tomorrow.
You may be wondering why is Nirmala writing this blog? Well, The climax is about how this emergency trip for my dad, to the emergency ward of Apollo hospital, has transformed me for my life.
The whole day from 6 AM till 6 PM, I had been on my toes. I would have lost my patience and burst into anger and frustration. I may not have shown to others but would have cried in pain and anger to my mom or in the washroom. There was this one person who has changed me forever for the remaining years of my life. I am poor at remembering names, so I recollected his name as Dr. Krishna Reddy written on his stethoscope. Krishna, I remembered because I have a similar surname. Later as I was reading through his discharge report, I corrected myself, and thus I am sharing with you all his correct name as Dr. Krishna Vardhan.
We have read many stories of paid seats for Medical Colleges and have wondered how safe is it? I must share that spending one day at the emergency ward and seeing this doctor will change your perspectives. I observed how he was patiently replying to every query from patients, relatives, nurses, ward boys, was filling all documents and forms, spoke to people on the phone, followed up if bills were being paid by the patient's attender so that he could start the next process, used to rush to the entrance of the emergency as soon as he would hear the ambulance alarm to receive the next critical patient made sure that senior doctors were informed, for their visit to seek their opinions for patients; the list may go on and on because that's all I was able to observe when I was not running around.
I am left wondering, what keeps him so calm to handle all this in a day more patiently than me? And when I heard my mom say that his mother has raised him so well, the last straw was for me to decide how I should be handling my moments of stress.
Dr. Krishna Vardhan reminds me of a quote from Dr. Daisaku Ikeda: "Humanity's collective mission in the cosmos lies in the practice of compassion."
Another memorable incident happened when my then invisible tears, was felt by Mr. Amit Singh at the Pharmacy counter. He softly took my list and asked me to sit down. I was so tired and half-conscious, something strange happened to me. I was shaken by his warmth and consideration when he requested me to sit while he organized the long list of medicine and equipment. When I sat, I got lost in my thoughts wondering, how good it feels when someone speaks to you nicely when you are feeling torn with the problems, you forget that even you need someone to be kind to you. The next moment I could feel warm tears fogging my spectacles and escaping my brand new mask matching the clothes that I had selected to wear to the hospital that day and falling on my hands. That left me in tears of happiness and sadness. I felt happy because I was treated compassionately by a stranger and sad because I was managing all this alone.
I received the discharge summary from another doctor, then I quietly went to Dr. Krishna Vardhan and thanked him again before we left the hospital.
When we least expected it, we were stopped by a traffic cop for getting into a one-way. Ahead of our car, there was another car stopped by the cop. Seeing this, I was mentally preparing myself to pay the challan when I saw the cop showing his hand asking me not to step out of my car. I could also see the driver (smartly dressed gentleman) bribing the cop. I was upset at the illegal event and questioned the cop and clicked their pictures. Realizing he is getting caught, the cop let me go without a fine. We reached home late and, after five sleepless nights, we all had a sound sleep. With a catheter by his bedside and the right medication, I am delighted to wake up seeing my dad sleeping like a baby.
Are you wondering why Nirmala is not sharing the name of the cop, pictures, and vehicle of this incidence?
Closing thoughts is a quote from Wayne Dyer: How people treat you is their karma and, how you react is yours.
When something nice happens to you, you must share their names and when unpleasant events happen, let karma do its job.
To read this blog with emotions I felt while writing... click on the presentation below
You have been kind and loving to all...what you do always comes back and sometimes when life gets tough..good deeds are blessings...wishing uncle speedy recovery and best wishes to your son....love to aunty and you please do take care...