Yesterday being Doctor’s Day, I had wished all the doctors in
my family a happy and healthy life so that they can take care of millions lives
in their life time including my family and me. I, being 3000
Kms away from them, still believe
strongly on telemedicine suggested by them.
While I wished them happy doctor’s day, I could not resist recalling the
horror incident we all went through six month ago.
My elder brother, who is a doctor and works with Indian
Railways hospital at Katihar, has quite a hectic working hours in day, at
night, and as a specialist physician be on call throughout for consultation
24x7. The preceding week was unusually pathetic with heavy workloads including
night outs with heavy hearts because of the loss of a dear doctor friend due to the heart
attack.
On 28th Dec. 2016, he woke-up early in the morning
with an emergency situation because my mother had a fall in the bath and she
fractured her left long bone near the hip joint. Mother was in pain and so as a doctor son, my
brother started contacting fellow orthopedic doctors and planning to shift her
in the hospital for the treatment. As planned, he wanted to conclude his usual
morning rounds with the patients and then shift mother to the hospital. While
he could complete half of his visits to the patients he felt uneasiness in his
chest. His own clinical sense suggested that something was not right with his
heart and the symptoms calls for an instant check-up.
At around 10.30 A.M he left rest of his patient round and summoned
the duty nurses and technician to a cabin and asked them to take an ECG . On
the way, he caught hold of one of his junior doctors to assist him too.
Instantly the ECG was taken and he himself read the report. He understood that
his heart was in trouble and he knew that he had not much time to consult other
fellow doctors. He summoned nurses and his junior doctor and instructed them to
administer drugs and IV injections to clear the blocks. He went on monitoring his own treatment until
he fell unconscious. Fortunately, he sensed the trouble much early and could
tell his junior doctor to do what best is possible in that situation. To his luck and to our seer luck, drugs acted
well on time and started showing result.
Meanwhile the news flashed in town like a wild fire and
fellow doctors who could assist him made an attempt to reach to him as quickly
as possible. But the traffic jam on the over bridge which connects one part of
the town to another part delayed them longer. Few had taken pedestrian route to
the hospital, yet the substantial amount of time was lost. Had my brother
waited for their assistance, he would have risked his life. Even on the half
conscious state he could understand the overdose of medicine administered to
him and he asked to reduce the dosage. The critical time of suspense to get his
heart functioning normal was swinging in wait. At 5 P.M in the evening, he came
to his full conscious state and was stabilized. But, he was not out of danger
until 48 hours had passed.
Perhaps those were the hours; most of us needed god’s
blessing in spite of marvels of healthcare that has improved the landscape of
our lives. Perhaps those were the hours, we felt helpless when we had nothing
to do except to wait and watch. Perhaps those were the most defining hours in
any doctor’s life who would treat his heart as he has been treating other patients.
However, my brother could have not been able to take the treatments, had he not
been on rounds with patients in the hospital.
He was instrumental in procuring drugs for the heart ailment in that
hospital and he alone was the treating physician who has patients waiting for
hours to see him. Perhaps he is the last hope in the town for anybody’s heart
ailments. All his hard work for his patients came handy to save his own heart.
The battle of life with your own treatment and with your own
clinical judgment by a doctor has rarely been heard. This is a rarest of rare
case, where the will of a doctor has led him think consciously without panicking
in danger. And this had been a bench
mark story for the doctors in town and the hospital where my brother had gone
for angioplasty. Though, now all looks as a story, but may god bless that none of the doctors should
be into such kind of a test where they had to take their decision of life
themselves.
Thinking of the situation that passed by, it still get shivers
in the spine. True to the fact that not
all can do what my brother did and at the same not all can be as lucky as he
was. In some corner of his heart he had
pain for other’s heart and those hearts prayed for him when he battled. Perhaps
a doctor’s life is not alone of his own but shared by his patients whom he
treats day and night without caring for his own comfort.
Yet, some advices for the doctors could be to first care for
their own health and then care for patient’s health. Do not neglect minor signals that can be
fatal in putting your life in danger, especially learn to listen to your heart.
Finally, live with big heart and open mind – Life is beautiful!
