‘You first of all get these medicines, get your mother admitted at once & get biopsy done on her throat lump, get it tested by Tata Memorial at the earliest’ the surgeons’ each word sunk my father deep & deep which I could fathom from his depressing face. We all came out of his cabin with heavy heart & as if tons of iron tied with our legs. My father asked me to get the medicine from local chemist who made my father turn every leaf in our government quarter for each penny, borrowed remaining from neighbour to buy medicine.
My father remembered that his friend who was compounder in the nearby hospital had been to Bombay for some work. He phoned him to get appointment in Tatas’ for biopsy. The fellow asked him to wait till he comes back & let him investigates my grandmother on listening which doctor examined her. ‘You fool, I got my mother checked by MS, FRCS doctor you are just a compounder how on earth you challenge him’ my father just got furious with him. However, his friend got him calm down & succeeded in holding him till he comes. Next morning the compounder came he checked the hard lump on the throat of the old lady. He gave a small tablet & convinced my father to let her pop it up. As such the surgeon had indicated she has cancer since getting biopsy tested in Tata Memorial Hospital means that only, what a small tablet of a jawar size can harm her. Grandmother took the tablet with some warm water as suggested by the compounder & slept. By noon the lump was disappeared as if it was never there. The confident fellow again came in the evening to see effect of his medication. My grandmother was then sitting outside with her friend & discussing at length on her pet subject of grievances against her daughter in law. I later had big trouble in convincing the chemist to make him take the medicines back & pay me cash.
‘They don’t have anything other than antibiotics & surgery’ my homeopath friend was arguing his point to the top of his lungs against allopaths. ‘My father lived ninety two & never took a single tablet’ another added. ‘I’m more worried of the side-effects than the main disease’, I put forth my genuine concern. ‘He’s clear & discharged’ many a time’s doctors give fitness certificate & shake hand with the cancer or such dreadful diseased patient smilingly. Next Sunday patients’ son calls him to convey his fathers’ demise. He hasn’t died of cancer but the medication he took to cure the cancer took toll of his life. He could not sustain the side or ill-effects of medication.
Many a times I carry on with paining tooth but the tablet to suppress the pain give me hell. I just can not stand, perspire heavily, head gets unclear, and urinate frequently. Getting admitted in hospital sends shiver to my spine. However all is not so bad & not so depressing as well there. The nurses zoom across in their skin tight, half an inch below or above the knee, milky white uniform are the major respite to us patients. Yet, the real pain or sin is they make us call them ‘sister’. Being a true person right from the bottom of my ailing heart how can eyes speak truth & lips untrue? I’ve been calling them nurse instead. Taking pills is nothing even getting pierced deep inside the flesh through their delicate hands sends smile on to my lips. Getting well is not acceptable sometimes. I’d then take the doctor in confidence asking him to keep me ‘under observation’ for few more days.
Shoe store sales man is trained to remove customers’ shoe the moment he enters. This locks the customer mentally & the sale is confirmed sort of. Just like that hospitals have learnt marketing. I’ve been searching for Philip Kotlar through many of their anatomy, physiology, and endocrinology etc. books on the shelf. Perhaps it is their trade secret to not to show that they’re adopting marketing tactics. Yet for a seasoned marketing man like me they can’t just escape. See, they’d locate the vein & pierce view flow needle the moment patient admits in it solves duel purpose of injecting various drugs with least pain to the patient & more importantly the patient wouldn’t run away without paying his dues. Hospitals send him through various tests to put the machine through use & sometimes patient’s health demands them. They keep the hospital clean & glowing not only due to health requirement demands it but neatness attracts the customers, oops! I mean patients. They’ve been advertising too for various health check ups & like with a cute looking nurse, not sister, with an injection holding in her neatly manicured hand.
You see, the hospitals are changing. Giving life to the dieing patients at the same time making them more religious & spiritual since they’ll having nothing with them to observe.
By
Vijay Yelmelwar
My father remembered that his friend who was compounder in the nearby hospital had been to Bombay for some work. He phoned him to get appointment in Tatas’ for biopsy. The fellow asked him to wait till he comes back & let him investigates my grandmother on listening which doctor examined her. ‘You fool, I got my mother checked by MS, FRCS doctor you are just a compounder how on earth you challenge him’ my father just got furious with him. However, his friend got him calm down & succeeded in holding him till he comes. Next morning the compounder came he checked the hard lump on the throat of the old lady. He gave a small tablet & convinced my father to let her pop it up. As such the surgeon had indicated she has cancer since getting biopsy tested in Tata Memorial Hospital means that only, what a small tablet of a jawar size can harm her. Grandmother took the tablet with some warm water as suggested by the compounder & slept. By noon the lump was disappeared as if it was never there. The confident fellow again came in the evening to see effect of his medication. My grandmother was then sitting outside with her friend & discussing at length on her pet subject of grievances against her daughter in law. I later had big trouble in convincing the chemist to make him take the medicines back & pay me cash.
‘They don’t have anything other than antibiotics & surgery’ my homeopath friend was arguing his point to the top of his lungs against allopaths. ‘My father lived ninety two & never took a single tablet’ another added. ‘I’m more worried of the side-effects than the main disease’, I put forth my genuine concern. ‘He’s clear & discharged’ many a time’s doctors give fitness certificate & shake hand with the cancer or such dreadful diseased patient smilingly. Next Sunday patients’ son calls him to convey his fathers’ demise. He hasn’t died of cancer but the medication he took to cure the cancer took toll of his life. He could not sustain the side or ill-effects of medication.
Many a times I carry on with paining tooth but the tablet to suppress the pain give me hell. I just can not stand, perspire heavily, head gets unclear, and urinate frequently. Getting admitted in hospital sends shiver to my spine. However all is not so bad & not so depressing as well there. The nurses zoom across in their skin tight, half an inch below or above the knee, milky white uniform are the major respite to us patients. Yet, the real pain or sin is they make us call them ‘sister’. Being a true person right from the bottom of my ailing heart how can eyes speak truth & lips untrue? I’ve been calling them nurse instead. Taking pills is nothing even getting pierced deep inside the flesh through their delicate hands sends smile on to my lips. Getting well is not acceptable sometimes. I’d then take the doctor in confidence asking him to keep me ‘under observation’ for few more days.
Shoe store sales man is trained to remove customers’ shoe the moment he enters. This locks the customer mentally & the sale is confirmed sort of. Just like that hospitals have learnt marketing. I’ve been searching for Philip Kotlar through many of their anatomy, physiology, and endocrinology etc. books on the shelf. Perhaps it is their trade secret to not to show that they’re adopting marketing tactics. Yet for a seasoned marketing man like me they can’t just escape. See, they’d locate the vein & pierce view flow needle the moment patient admits in it solves duel purpose of injecting various drugs with least pain to the patient & more importantly the patient wouldn’t run away without paying his dues. Hospitals send him through various tests to put the machine through use & sometimes patient’s health demands them. They keep the hospital clean & glowing not only due to health requirement demands it but neatness attracts the customers, oops! I mean patients. They’ve been advertising too for various health check ups & like with a cute looking nurse, not sister, with an injection holding in her neatly manicured hand.
You see, the hospitals are changing. Giving life to the dieing patients at the same time making them more religious & spiritual since they’ll having nothing with them to observe.
By
Vijay Yelmelwar
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