Death: an inevitable unbearable art!!!

[[##(Confession: I am not sure whether I should update this or not... It's my humble tribute to one of my patient cum friend.. I know, after going through this, you would surely feel sympathy towards the child that I am going to mention about... But pityness would be an entirely different issue and it would be against the interest of the child.. Hence Unlike my previous posts, some of the facts are modified in this update to maintain privacy. But the incidents are presented as they happened in reality. And for your information, she is now doing fine under the warm guardianship of some near relatives.)##]]

Few months back, one evening I was at my hometown Morigaon when one of my close friends (a doctor) called me,

"Partha, sorry to convey you a message, but you know, that kid's father expired.. As you are so close to them, I thought you should be informed.."

It didn't take me even a moment to guess whom my friend was referring to... She is a cute little girl, around 9 yrs old... Her mother expired long back... She is a distant relative of my friend and her father was one of my patients... Although there was a huge age difference, somehow her father became a good friend of mine and thus I have met her for several times in last 2 yrs and in the meantime I became her loving doctor uncle... She is too fond of me.. On many occasions they came to my clinic on her insistance just to say me "Hi"... Only 2 days back he was admitted at a hospital and that evening I got that tragic news.. Frankly speaking, I was too sad to hear about the happenings, but I became even more concerned about her future...

Next morning I went to meet the child. She was sitting on a mattress outside her house... There were many persons there at that moment... She didn't notice me at first... She appeared so calm and quiet... Her vacant vision was focussed at something which was unknown to me.. Probably she was thinking about all the good times that she spent with her father... Or  it might also happen that her mind was  totally blank at that moment... Only god knows how much pain a little heart of that age can tolerate!!!

I paused for a moment... I couldn't gather the courage to call her and bring her back to reality.. I went inside, took a seat on a sofa and then became even more confused how to approach the child... At last after sometime I called her,

"Maa..."

The kid who was so calm and quiet till few moments back, who was trying her best to control her emotions, just broke down after seeing me... Tear started flowing her eyes... She said weeping,

"My papa left me uncle !!!"

I wasn't sure how to react... My heart became heavy enough to think about anything else... I lifted her, made her sit  on my lap, touched her cheeks, wiped the tears and said,

"Don't cry Maa, everything will be alright..."

You know, being a physician, I have witnessed several deaths till now.  But this one was totally different for me... To be true, I never had to console a child who just became an orphan from the lovely princess of her father... I know that she would be taken care of properly by her near relatives... But has anybody seen the future??

Somebody said that death is also an art, but I would rather say that its an inevitable unbearable art !!!

Memories: A husband's concern!!!

Year: 2005... I can't remember the date or month... I was doing my internship at that time after passing out my MBBS course... It was my posting in the Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynaecology for 2 months... That day I was having my Labour Room duty... After the delivery of a baby, my senior (a Post Graduate student) asked me to convey the good news to the attendants who were eagerly waiting outside.. It was a normal delivery without any complications and both the mother and the baby were doing well... I went to the door and called the name of the mother. One well dressed guy of around 30 yrs came forward... From the concern that was clearly visible on his face, it could be easily presumed that he was a very near relative... I am not saying that when somebody cares, his/her concern is always displayed on the face everytime.. In my professional and personal life I have met quite a no. of people who can well suppress their feelings and can remain stable even during the worst moments of their lives... But in this particular case, that person's concern was totally visible through his eyes and the face. So without making him to wait any more, I conveyed him the news...

"Congratulations, its a baby boy!!!"

"Thank you sir... Thanks a lot, but how is my wife?"

"Oh... Don't worry... She is fine... Anyway, do you want to see the baby?"

"No, thank you Sir, I would like to see both the mother and the baby together...!!"

I was blessed to witness the real love of a husband... And I informed the same to the wife also...

"Your husband cares for you a lot... He wanted to see you first, not the baby!!"

You know, I feel short of words to describe the shy vivid smile of satisfaction that appeared in the lips of that lady... May be that being an unknown person to both of them, I somehow helped to develop the bond of love between the two even more stronger!!!

Prior to that very incident and even after that, I have conveyed this type of news for countless times till now... Whether its a boy or a girl, most of the times (leaving aside some of the cases of delivery of a baby girl which I have already discussed in one of my previous updates!) I have witnessed the rapid spread of the abruptly appearing smiles of  happiness amongst the family members... But I am sorry to say that except that particular husband, I have never met any other person in my life, not even within my family, who is that much prompt to enquire about the very person for whom they were able to hear the good news... Even if for some moments, everytime there is a time lag to question about the mother's well being... To be true, personally I have never met anyone else who could suppress their feelings to see the newborn baby till the mother is brought out of the labour room...

You see, when a lady gets pregnant, the whole family waits for around 9 months to welcome a new member to the family... So at last when the clock ticks and the wait is over, its quite natural to celebrate that moment and forget about everything else... But actually  it has been never a "good feeling" to see even the husbands to forget about their wives at that very moment.. But nobody is to blame... If you are a husband or anyone who has the experience of waiting outside a labour room even for once, then you would be the right person to question yourself and you will get the proper answer... Who knows, if everything goes well and if one fine day my wife also gets pregnant, even I might fail during that very significant test of my life...

That husband was able to make a memorable deep impression within the core of my heart which I quite often rejoice and it makes me believe that real love actually exists!! His wife didn't have any complications, but even if somehow something untoward happened to his wife, I am sure that he was not that type of guy to deprive the baby of a father's love and care...

I know, I would never be able to recognize that husband even if I meet him someday... Thus by this update, I would like to thank him for setting up an fine example for me and everybody.. Wherever he is, I hope he is having a happy family with his loving wife... May the almighty bless them all !!!