They celebrated their first marriage anniversary on 4 July 11.
Buni was expecting; the doctor had predicted the birth of the child in the second week of September. Pradeep, her husband was negotiating with a builder to buy an apartment. They would shift from the rented house to their own apartment after their child was born, and set up their own dream home.
On 7th September, Pradeep had a temperature. Dengue had taken the form of an epidemic. There was news of dengue related deaths every day in the daily newspapers. He consulted a doctor of a Nursing Home. The doctor got tested his blood sample and also did other tests. The reports of all the tests were negative. The doctor prescribed medicine for the fever and said, “No need of taking admission in the Nursing Home. Go home, take medicines. Complete rest will get you well within three four days.”
The temperature remitted after he took medicines, but it relapsed after one or one and half hours. The next day, on the 8th, the temperature touched 102 degree plus in the thermometer. He telephoned the doctor. The doctor assured, “Don’t worry. It is only the second day. Viral fever normally takes at least a week to be cured. Continue with the medicines. You will be well within three four days.”
On the 9th, he had unbearably high temperature. He was taken to the same Nursing Home. But on the way to the Nursing Home he became unconscious. The doctor of the Nursing Home said, “We don’t have vacant bed for the patient,” and advised to take the patient to SCB Medical College and Hospital.
The scene at the SCB was depressing.
The SCB is always overcrowded with patients. A large number of patients are on the veranda of the Medicine Ward; sleeping, some of them are seen on drips and their attendants sitting beside them. People, the near and dear ones of the patients would be running hither and thither. There is always allegation of callousness and carelessness of the doctors in any Govt Hospital. Sometimes, the doctors’ behaviour precipitates into violence; after death of the patient, the close relatives physically assault the attending doctor, and are beaten in return by the doctors. The doctors go on strike against such violence and demand action against the culprits, and as a permanent solution, demand enough protection. Taking into account the large number of patients and disproportionately less number of the doctors, the helplessness of the doctors is understandable.
Pradeep was admitted in the Medicine Ward. He was put on drips. He regained consciousness, but not fully. He could open his eyes, recognise the persons, but could not comprehend properly. He was, perhaps, administered some medicine, but what and what for, his relatives could not know. There was no discernible improvement in his condition. His relatives had a feeling that he was not properly attended to. The doctors were irritable when asked anything, and their behaviour was certainly very rude. When one of his relatives asked, “What has happened? What ailment he is suffering from?” Their answer was, “What do you know? I am the doctor or you are?” and the doctor turned his face away as if the person asking were not a human being, but an ugly beast or something like that.
Buni felt labour pain. The same day she was admitted in the Gynaecology Ward of the SCB Medical.
The next day, on the 10th, condition of Pradeep deteriorated. His relatives were desperate. The doctors were unresponsive. His relatives were not sure whether or not their patient was being treated properly. One of his relatives, himself a doctor serving in a periphery Govt hospital, visited him and inquired into the case. He observed, “There is no transparency; the patient’s attendants should know the disease he is treated for and the medicines he is being administered. That instils confidence in the treatment. The doctor may prescribe the medicines; patient’s relatives shall buy, so that they will be reassured…” He went to the doctor on duty and suggested the same. The young doctor on duty, a PG student, replied, “He is treated properly. There is no provision that a patient would purchase the medicine. The Hospital is giving the right kind of medicine.”
The patient might be treated properly; the Hospital might be providing the right kind of medicine. But what’s about the quality of the medicine? There are also news, one often come across, about poor quality of medicine supplied to Govt Hospitals by the unscrupulous suppliers in connivance with certain corrupt officials. One reads such kind of scandals in the newspapers!
The doctor-relative remarked, “He is very arrogant and also misbehaving. I was his senior, still he behaves like this. A few months back he was also beaten by a patient’s relatives, and there was much hullabaloo. Better, you take the patient to a private nursing home.”
The doctor-relative told that Pradeep had cerebral malaria.
The friends, relatives, acquaintances who heard of his illness thronged to the SCB to see him. One of his relatives has a doctor-friend serving as Asst Professor in Berhampur. He requested him whether he could help the patient in any way. The Asst Professor was a lecturer in the SCB before he got promoted and posted to Berhampur. The Asst Professor asked about the Unit in which the patient was admitted and the Professor heading the Unit. When he heard the Unit and name of its head, he said, “That Professor is very arrogant and irritable. Instead of listening to any one, he would rather be annoyed.” And he told once his own uncle had gone to the Hospital and he, by the way, dropped his name. The Professor got annoyed and rebuked his uncle. The Asst Professor added, “But he is a good doctor. He does not neglect in his duty.” That was the only solace.
On the 10th, Buni gave birth to a son in the Gynaecology Ward. Pradeep was informed about his becoming a father. He asked, “Has the child been administered injections?” and then, he lost consciousness.
Pradeep’s condition further aggravated. The next day, on 11th, he was taken to ICU and put on ventilator. Dialysis had to be done for functioning of his kidney. But the instrument the SCB had took eleven hours for a dialysis.
The doctors of the SCB did dialysis once and then, his relatives took Pradeep to Appollo Hospital, Bhubaneswar. In Apollo, the dialysis took four hours. Dialysis had, now, to be done regularly.
The doctors of the Apollo gave hope, they told he would survive.
After a few days the ventilator was put off, but dialysis continued in regular interval. The Asst Professor told recovery would be fast after the ventilator was put off.
But on 28th, the patient’s condition suddenly deteriorated, the right side of his body turned paralytic, he was again put on ventilator. On 29th, at around 5.30 pm, he breathed his last.
Buni is my niece, the only daughter of my wife’s sister. She is at 27, Pradeep was at 31. Their marriage was only one year old; their son is only 21 days old when his father died.
I visited my wife’s sister on last Sunday, 2nd October. I asked her father, “Where is Buni?”
He replied, “She is now in her in law’s house.”
“How could you send her to her in law’s house in such a condition?” I could not believe.
He said, “What can I do? There is a social custom; the wife has to see the face of her dead husband before the dead body is cremated. Vermilion has to be wiped off her forehead; bangles of her hands have to be broken…”
I could not have patience to listen more. I wanted to meet Buni, but now I did not have the courage to face her.
I cannot forgive the doctors of the SCB Medical College and Hospital. Of course, they meet every day hundreds of such patients, but Buni had only one patient, her husband who died, her parents has lost their only son in law, their only daughter is now a widow.
I feel hatred against such a cruel social custom that put a grieving wife to such a painful trauma.
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