Duty Bound

C.P.

[1]

It was my first day in the RNM hospital. I was very excited. I was given the charge of Pediatrics ward. That was my first independent assignment. Till now I had always been under some senior, and had only carried out their decisions. Now I could take my own treatment decisions.
I was having a little chat with the nurse when this ward boy came panting.

-Doctor, there's a very serious baby in the OPD.

We rushed to the OPD. An old woman was holding this newly born baby, and was crying.

-Doc saab, save my baby.

The man, around seventy, was looking at me very earnestly.
I placed the baby on the couch. He was blue, limp, not breathing, and blood stained. I put my stethoscope on his chest. His heart was beating, very slow.

-Tell me what happened.

-Doc saab my bahu gave birth before time, we could not bring her to the hospital. this baby has not cried after birth.

I started resuscitation almost mechanically. Clean the mouth, put in a tube in his wind pipes and pushed oxygen. All the training I had received I applied on this child. Within minutes His color changed. He took one or two gasps and then started breathing rapidly. I started a IV drip and shifted the baby to ICU.

-Uncle if you came five minutes late we could not have saved the baby. But now he's out of danger. We'll keep him here for two days.

-Doc saab you are God for us,
said that old man and fell on my feet.

-That's was my duty, uncle, I have saved so many such children before.

I had done a good resuscitation job, as always. A victorious smile was on my face

[2]

I was about to leave my clinic, when Uma phoned from the reception,

-there's a patient having convulsions, should I refuse sir, its already very late for you..

-No Uma , let him in, how old is he?

-about fifteen, sir.

I am a senior consultant and after fifteen years of practice can afford receptionists and can refuse patients. Patients have to take appointment in the morning to consult me in the evening.

In the examination room this young boy was lying on the table, and convulsing vigorously. I just made a cursory glance at him and asked the nurse to give intravenous calmpose. Within minutes his jerks stopped and his body relaxed.

He had a strange round moronic face. His limbs were shrivelled. a repulsive odour was there around him. even from distance I could tell the diagnosis, Cerebral Palsy.

-How long has he been like this,

The lady was sobbing. His husband, around my age, but looking older, looked at me. there was a mixed emotion on his face, joy, of seeing his child sleeping peacefully, and agony, of parenting a CP child.

-almost always. But we could only come to know when he was unable to sit while other children his age were running. We have been to a number of hospitals, so many specialists, but he will always remain like this. Only death will cure him.

-was there any problem at the time of birth?

-Yes, spoke the lady , for the first time,

-he didn't breath when he was born. his grandpa took him to the nearby hospital where he was admitted for three days.

I could now see anger on the face of his father.
-I regret that moment my dad took him to that doctor. He saved my son from death but gave him this cursed life.

-Which hospital did your father took him to?

-RNM.

I felt a lump in my throat which I could not swallow. The words of the nurse on duty that day were still fresh in my ears, Don't save this baby Doc Saab, You know how much damage his brain must have had by now. What life will you give him, and I had snubbed her, Who are we to predict future, Sister, we can only do our duty.

-why did your dad took him to that hospital instead of letting him die in your home. and why have you brought him to me, instead of letting him convulse to death. I tell you why, you don't want to be responsible for his sufferings and me to take the blame.