My experience in residency

Tring….tring..tring….tring……(2.00 am) in morning, “sir a unknown patient presented with acute pain in abdomen after a road traffic accident”.I asked whats on x-ray ?Junior “sir….its a gas under diaphragm”.Me “admit and prepare for urgent surgery”.Junior “sir ….no one is with the patient .who will arrange blood for surgery and give consent for the surgery,”Me “if we don’t operate he will die.”The patient was admitted in SICU (surgical icu )I examined the patient and said

“Tumhara operation karana padegaa”Patient “dacter saab ek bidi de do.”I was shocked, in spite of having a perforation in is gut , and such severe pain that could take his life he was asking for a smoke.The patient was lying all alone in ICU with a per urethral catheter and a nasogastric tube,as usual in any governmental hospital, there is always scarcity of resources.I said “tumhara operation karna padega.”Patient. “mujhey nahi karwana operation.”It was a very difficult situation, we knew that he would die in few hours if not operated and he is not giving consent.I decided to operate no matter what happens, we took him to operation theater, arranged 2 units of blood somehow, all sutures , antibiotics a and every small thing required for the surgery.

To my astonishment I found 2 lits of pus inside his abdomen and a small puncture(perforation) in his small gut .The surgery took 2 hours and we were done with it by 5.30 am in the morning , had a cup of tea …..paanch (5) ruupiya ka “ek cut chaai” from a thelaa outside the hospital campus. That chaai was a luxury for a general surgery resident in this set up.
I took a power nap for an hour ……. …its 8:00 am , time to take rounds and more important than round is to get urself ready for the “firing from the senior consultants” for no reasons……….the irony is “ab toh inti aadat ho gayi hai ki firing na ho toh constipation hota hai”.I went to see MUTTAPPA in SICU ………..the surgery was good , we arranged 2 units of blood, all necessary antibiotics and all other requirements.Its 4th post operative day, muttappa is recovering well from the trauma….i remember the wordings of my teacher….surgery deals with “TATTI & PATTI”(motion & dressing)….dressing keeps the patient happy and if patient passed motion in a GI surgery the surgeon is happy….so muttappa passed motion and I was happy.Three months have passed , muttappa still calls up to say “namstay dacter saab”……..this life is not all about money and we believe in humanity . It may have taken a little more effort for me to look after that lone patient from a remote village from kerela, today he is alive with his 2 year old daughter and his wife and has left smoking bidi.