The Night she Deigned not to Die...

It was my last night of graveyard shift duty at the Labour room as an intern in Gynae & Obs

And boy!!! was I glad?!!!Now, now...don't go all judgemental...I love what I do

I do!

But honestly, do storks just have to deliver their goods in the dead of a December night???

I mean, it's not comfortable for the newbie mommies

it's not comfortable for the newbie babies

AND it's most definitely not comfortable for the newbie doctors...

To add insult to injury it was not only really really cold but also the sleeves of my apron had gotten all wet too somehow

So I was cold wet and delivering babies on a freezing December night

Now go ahead and be judgemental

See if I care!

Anyways so here I was grumpily going around doing whatever needed doing when the senior gynae resident walks in...

The young patient who had to be wheeled in for an emergency C-section in the afternoon was going into shock::: she informed

Her BP was fluctuating

She had been put on dopamine and fluids

Her urine output was dangerously low

AND they just couldn't get her a vacant bed in the ICU where all the necessary monitoring facilities were...

They had been trying all day

Pulling all strings that there was to pull....but to no avail!

Someone up in ICU had even offered that if the G&O people could just come up and maybe boot out one of its present occupants and thereby empty out a bed for this one they were more than welcome to do so!

Guess my nerves weren't the only ones frayed around here huh?

There was an epidemic of frayed nerves in progress

*sigh....

So anyways like I was saying this patient's condition was deteriorating...and deteriorating fast

She needed constant monitoring

And well it stood to perfect logic that if a machine wasn't around to do just that a human had to step in it's shoes...

So lo and behold...

I was handpicked by the VS as the one most likely to excel as a machine...

Applause all around please....

Thank you Thank you

*and I bow

So this is how it came to pass that on this particular cold dreary december night I was sitting beside a very frail young woman with multiple IV catheters going in here and there into her...

Delivering a bit of this and a bit of that...

Whose dosage by the way required constant vigil depending on her vitals...

Which by the way I was to check EVERY 15mins...

Her BP

Pulse

Urine output

Respiratory rate

Temperature

auscultate her chest

see if there was any oozing from the surgical wound

etc etc etc

In short, I had to do all it took to ward of any dark angels if they dared venture close to my patient

* shoo!!! You scavengers of souls!

Am in no mood for any of your nonsense tonight

Got that?

So that's what I was doing when this young woman, Arpita [ as per her bed head ticket] opens her eyes briefly and cries out:::

"My baby! my baby??? Oh my baby! Where is it?"

"Shhhhhhh!" I say " You have a healthy little boy and he's doing just fine, he's in the nursery."

At this news she starts whimpering

"Oh please doctor, bring him to me one time...just once...I want to see him just once before I die...oh my baby"

Die...DIE???

What do you mean you die???

I will slap you tight if you die

You hear me?

It's cold

It's dreary

I am tired

And yet I am here

And SO you are not gonna die on me

Get that?

That's what I wanted to scream at her

But I didnt

" Now here, Arpita" I said as soothingly as I could manage in the face of my rising irritation,

"You are not going to die

You are not going to die 'coz I have been working my ass off here just so that your son has a mother tomorrow morning...

Just so that you can feed him and bathe him and hold him and love him and help him grow up to be just as fine a person as you undoubtedly are right this minute..

So you hear me?

You are NOT gonna die

Dont you even dare try" I finished

But by then I wasnt sure she had heard me, she had dropped off again...

I immediately checked out her vitals and adjusted the doses as required and then breathing a very irritated sigh sat down once again to wait for the next 15mins to go by after which I would repeat the whole thing all over again...

Boy!!! Talk about ungratefulness!!!

Die huh?

If she did that I am personally gonna resurrect her and then kill her all over again

*I vowed

She didnt die

She made it

But she slept when my bright-eyed fresh-faced replacement came in the next morning

I handed over the case

touching up all the necessary notes I had made into her BHT & treatment card all through the night

And gave the morning intern a work-up on what had transpired the night before...

He was quick on the uptake

And shooed me away to my unmade bed in my cramped dorm room

Ahhhhh!!! Talk about paradise on earth

I must have outslept Rip Van Winkle that time around

Anyways I had forgotton all about her...

all about her...who had deigned not to die on me that december night...

when one fine lazy spring afternoon

I was strolling down College street

contently shopping for an interesting hardcover to read in a sunlit alcove while sipping fruit juice...

and I wanted it for a bargain too...

So I was busy poking my nose around all those tiny quaint used-books stores...

When all of a sudden I was hit by a petite tornado...

"Thank God!!! Thank God!!!

Is this really you, doctor?!!!!

Oh! I was so afraid I would never get to see you again

to thank you for properly for pulling me back from the dead!!!

Oh!!! Thank God!!!

Thank you so much...

My prayers have been answered!!!

It is you!!!"

"Ahhhhhhhhh well

Ummmmm yes

looks like I am me alright

ummmmmmmm

but am very sorry

I really cant place you"

"Arpita...bed no 161

27th dec....last year...

I had my baby...remember...

You watched over me that dreadful night...

when I thought I would die...

But I didn't

all because of you

Thank You!"

Ahhhhhh yes!!!

The impudently incorrigibly ungrateful soul who thought who could just like die on me!!!!

The guts!!!

By jove!!!

The nerve on the woman!!!

Oh Yes!!!

I remember her alright!!!

And I could still strangle her alright!!!

Boy! Was I cold and wet and tired and a real mess that night?!!!

* I thought

But then she was frantically waving over an young man with a 4 month old baby in his arms towards us

"This is my husband

And this is Priyank

We named him after you."

Oh!

Oh!

WAIT!

What?

Could you repeat that again please?

Sometimes I scream. Silently.

A Keloid is a condition of proliferation of fibroblasts, collagen fibrils & immature blood vessels usually on a pre-existing scar. It extends into the normal tissues & continues to grow years after injury---- I go over the definition in my mind the moment she tells me her complaint.

She is my Spot Case.

My last hurdle in the Surgery Clinicals.

I poke around a bit more on her scarred neck & upper chest.

She sits meekly, obliges when I tell her to turn her head or raise her chin & politely answers my questions:::

Yes, it itches she affirms.

Yes, it's growing.

Yes, it's been over 9 months now since the day she was burned.

No, there's no difficulty in moving her neck.

And so on....

I write down the diagnosis on my answer script.

Then I sit down on the lonely bedside stool & go over all my answers trying to figure out where I might have gotten something wrong...

My long case had been a 57 years old male with obstructive jaundice. A lot can be asked from that one.

I go over all the Differential Diagnosis in my head & frame my Clinical Diagnosis as I will say it to the examiners in the viva voce round that's gonna come up in about 5mins time.

I glance at my wristwatch.

Time's ticking steadily.

My heart picks up pace.

Shoot! It's the last day of Internal Assessments.

Surgery Clinicals done & am a free agent again.

I will go to my fav fast food joint the min this ordeal's over, I vow.

And boy!!! am I gonna party tonight!!!

I smile at the thought.

She smiles back---my Spot Case.

I had forgotten all about her for a moment.

Oh crap! the exam's isn't over just yet, I remind myself!

Still too early to start celebrating old girl, I scold.

"What's your name?" I ask. Just for the sake of it.

Knowing pretty well I didn't have to give the examiners the name of my Spot Case or for that matter the case history.

Only the diagnosis & answers to a couple of pertinent theoretical questions will be all that would be required.

"Sheouli" she answers, eyes sparkling.

She's a pretty girl, I realise.

She used to be that is....I correct myself.

I look at her anew.

Maybe only a couple of years older than myself I guess.

Her long hair is parted down the middle & plaited on either side of her small oval face.

Vermillion applied neatly at the part.

"You are married" I observe.

"Oh yes" she smiles back

"Infact, I am a proud mommy to a very beautiful 1 year old daughter" she giggles.

I look at my wristwatch.

It's past the 5 mins.

Where's the examiner?

I want this bloody exam to be over & done with.

I am tired of this nerve-wrecking wait.

I want to sleep...sleep in peace.

Haven't slept well since...well, since before the exams

Oh! what woe....I am the most wretched creature alive!!!

I tap my feet impatiently.

She is still smiling.

Eyes still sparkling.

She wants to talk about her daughter.

"Congratulation" I say " So, she's with her father now?"

I make inane conversation.

"No" she replies

"With her grandfather."

"Oh! father's at work?"

"No....no, he's not here.

He left me when I met with my accident.

Khushi was tiny then" she informs, smile still intact.

"Oh" I falter

"Oh, I am sorry."

"No, it's all right" she reassures me.

"So....so, how did all this happen?" I indicate the postburn contractures of her hands.

Her fingers are all fused together.

"I was warming Khushi's milk on the stove one moment & the next my pallu was on fire---it took only a few minutes" she smiles.

"Good thing is Khushi's cradle wasn't in the room" she perks up.

I am at a loss.

I nod.

"And your husband?"

I just can't stop myself.

"At work.

Papa says he was there when they admitted me into the hospital that night.

I wouldn't know...I didn't come around until a long time afterwards.

He left Khushi with Papa the next day.

We haven't heard from him since."

She is still smiling.

"Time's up!" announces the post-grad surgical resident as he hurries into the gloomy cabin & snatches away my answer script.

"Go down the corridor, second door on your left at the end---Dr. Mishra is ready for you now" he shoos me away.

"Best of luck" calls out my Spot Case.

"May you achieve all the success & joy in life.

You'll make a wonderful doctor someday" she smiles.

I scream.

Silently.

-Dr. Priyanka Angelina Xess