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Poignant Moments in My Life - II
This story is about Ramu, the one who used to trouble all the kids in Ward
44 in our hospital.
Cardiothoracic (Heart and Lung) surgeries typically take around 6-8 hours
and may even extend up to 12-14 hours if the procedure is a complicated one.
So most times, only one patient gets operated in a day. That means patients
have to wait for 20 days after admission before they get operated during
which time, they are worked up for fitness for surgery.
Our Hospital is the second best in the country and the health care is
delivered at no charge to the patient. Yeah! U gotta believe this… even an
open heart surgery is free of cost in our hospital.
I
was given permission by my HOD (Head of the Department) to write a computer
program … a module which would help us decide which patient should be
operated first. This module took into consideration various factors like
availability of blood of that particular type in the blood bank, seniority
of the patient in the ward, severity of the disease etc.
Ramu was doing his bachelors in computer science and was pretty good at
programming. I was busy doing some coding in C++ when I hear a voice …
“Doctor, there is a syntax error in your statement!”
Most patients in our hospital belong to the low socio economic status (not
that there is discrimination against high SES) and treating a patient who
knows English is a rarity. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was
proficient in programming.
We got to know each other well over the next few days. I had to rewrite the
code in C and Ramu helped me out with it as I was not too comfortable
programming in C (He was pretty good at it).
He was suffering from a disease called Tetrology of Fallot in other words
Totally F*#^ed. It is a developmental anomaly and it is pretty hard to
correct surgically. The whole heart is basically messed up!
Even though he knew that he was in a bad shape, he never let it affect his
spirit. He would always be in the center most boisterous crowd and would
take pleasure in teasing children. He would target the girl I had written
about the most as she was the cutest in the ward.
On the day of his operation, I met him in the morning, and I asked him how
he was. He replied, “I am fine doc, If the operation is successful, I will
live, if not, at least it wont hurt! Win Win Situation anyway!”
I
couldn’t go to the Operation Theater that day coz I had to take care of
another patient. The operation didn’t go too well as his heart was not
strong enough to pump blood post-op. He was put on drugs which will
stimulate the heart to beat faster.
I
was busy checking Ramu’s code for syntax errors when I get a call from the
ICU, “Quick go and get 4 pints of blood for Ramu, they are opening him up in
the ICU”
I
was like “The OT is just next door, why do they have to operate him in the
ICU?”
When I reached the ICU with the blood, I realized the gravity of the
situation. He was bleeding from all the surgical wounds. We would pump in a
pint of blood and he would lose a pint. They had to open him up STAT!
24 pints of blood (More like his whole blood was replaced many times) and a
lot of effort from the surgeons, but we couldn’t save him! May his soul rest
in peace!
Freud would have had a lot of explanations to my feelings following this
incident.
In the end, we wonder… If we wouldn’t have operated on him then, would he
have had a few more years of productive life?
Sir Robert Hutchinson's words sounds so true in this context
From inability to leave well alone;
From too much zeal for what is new and
contempt for what is old;
From putting knowledge before wisdom,
science before art, cleverness before common sense;
From treating patients as cases; and
From making the cure of a disease more
grievous than its endurance,
Good Lord, deliver us.
Neo
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