THIS HAPPENS VOL XVIII & XIX
Dr. Gangadhar Sahoo
THIS HAPPENS VOL XVIII
I was very cautiously packing my single photo and silently coming to my office . I was not expecting anyone in my office chamber. Surprisingly I met my dear friend Ramesh ch. Mohapatra, Prof. & HOD Ophthalmology, waiting for me in my office." What happened? So early in the office? You could have conveyed me over the phone, if there was any problem. Anything serious? ",I asked.
"Nothing. Just the theory class was over. I thought I should have a cup of tea with you and go. You are very punctual. I thought, you must be there in the office. ", was his simple reply.
"By the way, what is the pack you are carrying so carefully?"
The package I was carrying was a big size single photo taken recently in a studio with my gray dowry coat and coffee color tie , which I had preserved so carefully. The occasion was our marriage anniversary.
" Wow ! Wonderful. ", excited my friend. I opened the package and showed it to my friend.
" What will you do with it ?"asked my friend.
My father was staying with me at Burla and mother at our village . He was bedridden for a prolonged period. He died of gallbladder cancer. I performed all the rituals there at Burla. After his death I searched for his single photo or a negative of a photo . Searched all albums but failed to find one. There were thousands of photos but not the one which I was looking for. Who is caring to preserve a photo of his/her father or mother? Then I searched for my father's old tin suitcase. Fortunately I got a pencil art of my father drawn by one of his students.
I took that and got it enlarged and bound. This served the purpose of the rituals. I still feel my helplessness at that time. I felt embarrassed and ashamed of being a son who could not keep a photograph of his father when he was alive.
That was a great lesson for me. I made it a principle from that day that nobody irrespective of my relationship would be embarrassed for me whether I am alive or dead. Nobody should feel that I am a liability for them. I am against the principle of observing the painstaking rituals which are enforced on the successors of the deceased . As long as one is alive one should try neither to be a dependent nor a burden on anybody. After one's death the rituals should not be a taxation for the successors. The successors should take it easy and stay peacefully. That will be the greatest tribute to the departed soul.
Why will the soul demand for such unfounded traditions and customs? Can the soul remain peacefully by inflicting stress, pain and misery into his successors?
When I asked my friend his view regarding the rituals followed after death of a person in our society, where those are very much reluctantly followed by the successors and relatives. The successors who are accustomed to the modern lifestyle , how can they observe the mourning with all restrictions sanctioned on them for a long period of 11 days ?
Ramesh said that he has told everyone not to take him to the ICU to prolong his life . He made me a witness to his statement. Moreover he told me that as birth and marriage , death should be celebrated not mourned. According to him that celebration will be the befitting tribute to the departed soul.
Then we came to the point of discussion about my bound photograph. To his query of how that photograph will solve any problem.
I said at least my son will not search for a photograph of his father and not feel embarrassed.
This is the first step of social reform.
THIS CAN HAPPEN: VOL IX
It was a busy OPD day in Dept. ObGy , VSS Medical College Burla. I was in charge of the OPD that day . A doctor from nearby town Baragarh ,happens to be my student came to my OPD with her niece. He requested to talk to me confidentially. We went into my consultation room. I asked the staff sister in charge not to allow anyone into my room .
The doctor introduced himself and his niece to me . She was doing her master degree in English in Jyoti Vihar ( Sambalpur University) and staying in the hostel . He narrated the story how his niece got pregnant. She wanted a medical termination. Moreover he requested me to do the procedure in the OPD itself that day , so that her parents could not know. Analyzing the situation and the helplessness of the doctor, I agreed. I examined her and asked her to do the necessary investigations including Ultrasonography.
He came with the reports by 12 noon. All reports were within normal limits , Rh+ve and ultrasonography revealed an intrauterine 7 wk pregnancy.
At that time the Post Partum Center (PPC ) , attached to the OPD was the authorized center for MTP( Medical Termination of Pregnancy). All records were maintained with full confidentiality. A form was filled up and signed with full signature by the girl. It was not a problem as she was not a minor. A code number was allotted to the girl . For Burla it was ORB-X ( X stands for the annual serial number).
I asked the PPC staff in charge to prepare for suction and evacuation ( a mechanical procedure for MTP). Intravenous drip was started. An ample of tranquilizer and atropine injection, as a form of premedication was administered. I asked the resident doctor to monitor her vitals manually during the procedure.
I started the procedure. When I introduced the dilator, it went through and through without any resistance. I suspected a perforation in the pregnant uterus. At the same time my resident doctor told me that her blood pressure was falling and pulse was rapid .
I stopped the procedure and informed OT for an emergency laparotomy. Fortunately OT was running and one table was free . Immediately the patient was carried to the operation theater. The anaesthesiologist took over the case . He administered general anaesthesia . I opened the abdomen. What I saw I couldn't believe my eyes. There was around two liters of fresh blood in the abdominal cavity . There was a rent on the right lateral side of the uterus with injury to that side uterine artery. I did both the repair and the MTP.
God saved me from a catastrophe. A life was saved.
In my life I had never perforated an uterus during any procedure till that date . I couldn't believe myself.
Next day when the girl was stable, I called her uncle and about to beg apology for the complication occurred. Before I was starting to tell anything ,the doctor had an emotional outburst. He cried like a child and held my feet. He confessed that , the day before she had gone to the Bargarh hospital for MTP. There they had suspected a perforation and referred her to Burla. He showed me the official referral ticket.
He said that since I was there in OPD , he became tension free . He was confident that everything would be done smoothly . He had no idea that a simple perforation is so catastrophic and life threatening. He confessed his fault and begged apology for his conduct. I forgave him thanked God to save me from a terrible situation.
I learned a few lessons from that incidence.
1. Never believe any patient and her relatives, particularly when she comes for MTP.
2. Never do an intrauterine procedure without anaesthesia.
3. Every patient is litigant unless otherwise proved.
I don't feel guilty because I have done my duty to help an unmarried girl, relative of a doctor colleague. Procedurally I was not wrong. Had the doctor or the girl revealed the fact of previous attempted MTP, I must have avoided doing the procedure in the OPD.
Fortunately God saved me .
In the best of best hands and in the best institution, this can happen.
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