BEHIND THE CURTAIN 6

anonymous

27th November 2018

DR SATEESH R. GUPTE

At the Bombay Hospital, we have a big surgical list once a week. We have two operating theatres and surgeries going on from morning till evening. To avoid waiting for patients to be brought to the operation theatre from the sprawling hospital complex, the next patient is brought in advance and is kept waiting in the corridor outside the theatre. Within are five residents, some observers and assistants who work as a team. One day, a highly educated patient was waiting outside the theatre for his turn to get operated. Inside an operation was still in progress, took longer than expected and the patient in the corridor had to wait. One of our assistant surgeons was a religious-minded man and took a great deal of interest in the scriptures and in philosophy in general. He had the ability to learn slokas by heart and was in the process of learning the Gita. He had a copy of the holy book in his pocket which he would take out now and then, whenever he was not on call, to read aloud. That day, when this particular patient was waiting in the corridor, my friend took out his Gita as usual and started reciting from it unmindful of who was around.

The patient was operated. Everything went off well. When we went to see the patient on the third post-operative day and asked him how he felt, he answered that he was very well indeed and was all praise for the surgeon who had operated on him. Then he added, in a low voice: "If you will not take offence, doctor, I would like to bring to your attention that somebody was reciting the Gita outside in the corridor while I was waiting to be wheeled in. Waiting there, all alone, to undergo a major operation, I got the feeling that I was a gone case and that the chanting the Gita had already begun even before I was to be operated! The minutes of waiting was the biggest torture I had to undergo. I had the feeling that my end was approaching fast!” Naturally we stopped our colleague's attempt at self-education! It was only then that we realized what people go through before they are wheeled in for the operation. For us, doctors, operations are every-day affairs that we take in our stride. From that day onwards I have taken special care not to talk loudly, not and not to sing when there is a patient in the corridor.

Compilation of professional reminiscences of specialists - edited by M.V.Kamath and Dr.Rekha Karmarkar