Author: nagpai

When I read about one Terry Wallis who got out of his semicoma of 19 years after an overwhelming head injury…I pray to God that such rare luck befall Aruna Shanbhag too…………….

Yesterday wasn’t the only time I remembered Aruna Shanbhag again. When I was posted for a short while in Ward 4 of KEM, my co-intern who is a graduate from there told me,

“You know that Aruna Staff?? She is in one of the side rooms here in this ward. She has been in this semi comatose state for almost 2 decades now. The staff (short for staff nurses) of Ward 4 take care of her.”

Me, “Oh..Aruna……oh THAT Aruna staff……..”

Pritee, “Yes, she is almost 50 now…she is very fair…and must have looked pretty in her youth.”

Then on some other occassion I went to the nursing station of the ward looking for the keys to the staff restroom of ward 4. There I saw a cylindrical box with a label made of sticking plaster reading ‘Aruna’s Keys’. That was the other occassion when I remembered her.

Aruna was a staff nurse at KEM hospital Mumbai. During her work there she had came across a sweeper Sohanlal who worked in the animal laboratory. She had found him mistreating the animals and warned him against doing that. (The other version of this story I had heard says that she had warned the fellow since she had found him stealing medicines and BMC supplies from the ward. I really don’t know which is the true version of the story). So this fellow out of venegance strangled her with a dog chain and raped her brutally. The strangulation caused reduction in oxygen supply to her brain and caused what is called ‘hypoxic brain damage’. As a result Aruna is now in her semi comatose state, unable to speak or move. She just responds to stimuli. Apparently she screams and laughs too sometimes.

At the time of this incident Aruna was engaged to be married to one doctor. Needless to say the doctor married some other lady later on. And apparently took no interest in caring for Aruna. I don’t know how much her family is involved in caring for her. But the staff nurses at KEM take care of her….Upholding the oath they take in the name of Florence Nightingale.

Sometimes I wonder what will happen to me should such a state befall me. I know my mother will care for me as long as she can. Will my brother be able to care for me apart from his family callings? My fiance?? Some day out of social/familial pressures and the will to move on with life he will get married to someone……thats what even I would want him to do. But will he still look after me…..for how long? How long will his wife and children allow him to? Aruna has fellow nurses to look after her….but if something like this befalls me during my stint as an intern…..certainly I don’t expect any interns to care for me……..

I use this opportunity to say that should I become a vegetable at any stage of time, please give me my right to die….don’t keep me alive just to make me a burden on the future……

In the past week I saw two women with neat and deep cuts on their wrists….allegedly accidental. And there is a lot I learnt from them in the 15 minutes I spent with them

Girl # 1 came in the evening, well dressed, young. 18 according to her case sheet. Brought by neighbours.
When we asked her how she managed to get her wrist cut, she said that she fell on a sheet of metal!! However she didn’t have a single scratch on her body, nor any other injury a person who falls from a height would sustain…..how miraculous for her.
“You didn’t try and commit suicide, did you?”
“No nothing like that”
“Sure?”
“No no…….”

We accepted her story and took her to the table for suturing her injury. Since it was a visible area on her wrist, to save her from an unsightly scar we made her buy a fine suture material which costs around Rs.120/. Otherwise the BMC provides suture material of a slightly thicker diameter for any patient who comes to the Minor Operation theatre. The girl was eager to watch what I was doing and at the same time would wince the moment I took the needle near her skin. Local anaesthesia had been given and all was just fine.

“Baghu nakos ga!”
(Don’t look here)
“Nahi mala baghaychay tumhi kay karta tey”
(No, I want to watch what you do)

She said she worked at a private practitioner’s clinic at Cotton green and that she was used to all that.
“Kay kartes tithe?”
(What do you do there)

“Sagla karte…takey ghete, dressing karte, ECG kadhtey, injection dete…….”
(I do everything…suture wounds, wound dressing, take ECGs, give injections….)

“Kay shikli ga tu?” The OT assistant asked her
(What are your qualifications?)

“Dahavi fail”
(Flunked 10th standard)

After I had taken some 6 stitches she asked me how many more I would be taking. The wound was a good 6-7 cms long and I told her that I can’t really say.

“Andajey sanga naa….”
(Make an estimate)

“Tuch kar naa…takey ghetes na tu pan”
(Why don’t you make one….you too do suturing, right)

“Tumhi javal javal ghetlet na takey……amhi khup lamb gheyo…..me he kam don-teen takyat kele astey”
(You have taken knots at a very small distance….I would have done this in only 2 or 3 knots)

She continued “Amhi patientla vicharto..kiti takey gheu..karan ek taka ghyayla doctor 100 rupaye ghetat”
(Actually we ask patients how many stitches should be taken as doctor charges Rs.100 per knot taken)

We all asked the girl to continue her education..take a second attempt at English, the subject she had failed in. But she was the sole breadwinner of her family and further education was out of question. Her older sister was shorter than her and was denied any job at any place.

“Pan mi mazya dhaktya bhavala shikavnarach ahey”
(But I am going to see to it that my younger brother gets educated)

I sincerely hope her younger brother remembers his sister’s sacrifice for him and the family and takes care of her in the future when she needs it. And that the unethical doctor is brought to the book ASAP! Both seem like remote possibilities to me

Part II will follow later …tired of typing anymore