My Brother - A Braveheart Doctor Who Saved His Own Heart

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 28^th 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!