“Lights, Camera, Action!!!”

It was a Sunday afternoon and as usual the Jawaharlal Nehru Boys’ Hostel had a TV room filled with yelling boys. The reason was not the movie, perhaps it was just the relief of it being a Sunday and exams not being near. Everyone was in a good mood. The film was “Nayak” based on how a commoner becomes the Chief Minister of State and changes the way things are. The room was filled with chaos and commotion. And every time our “commoner” beat up a goon or hit a dialogue, a background music started and the hall filled with whistles and shouts. I came back from my morose duty (Interns have no Sundays) and took a halt at the TV room. I had seen the movie thrice. But, the electrified atmosphere made me take a seat. I saw the movie, almost all the dialogues were known to me by heart. What seemed different this time was the signature tune that played every time the hero did something sensational (which ranged from suspending a Police Officer to killing a chief minister). I passed a remark, “Imagine life where everything had a background music being played with you. Putting a stethoscope round your neck would have been a different experience.” I went out of the TV room with the same thought in mind.

I had long forgotten this incident when one day, I was at the OPD when I was called as an Emergency Intern to the hospital gate. I went there and saw an elderly man in a vehicle with a note in his pocket. It was a referral slip from a rural hospital that said “? Seizure disorder” I looked at the patient who was gasping for breath and had developed an episode of seizure just before. His pulse was as slow as a tortoise. I understood that taking the patient to the OPD would be foolish and asking for a stretcher would consume time. The only option that remained was a backdoor entry into the ICU. I called the ICU postgraduate and asked him for help. He said that he would help open the back door to the ICU. I told the driver to drive as I say. At the same time, I scribbled a brief history and vitals in the OPD card. We reached the ICU back door in a couple of minutes and we got down picked up our patient and went inside the ICU, told the history to the ICU postgraduate and told him his vitals. I handed over the patient to the ICU staff. The family members stood with joined hands and thanked me for the help. It was after this the best thing happened. I felt like the “Nayak” commoner and the signature tune playing behind me. With the reels rolling slowly and the celluloid full of action, as if my hairs swaying in slow motion and as if I was in the middle of a movie. It played for long as I opened the door, put my head out of the door, then my body and then my shoes… you see it was slow motion.

As I came out of the ICU, I realized that the security guard at the gate had run all the way to the ICU back door. He was himself quite old to be called a guard and was red partly because of the scorching sun outside and partly because of the anger. He said, “Doctor, you cannot use this road.” I looked at him, thought for a while and smiled at him and said, “Aise kya dekh rhe ho kaka, Rishi Adhikary ka kaam karne ka tarika hi aisa hai…” (What are you staring at Uncle, This is how Rishi Adhikary works!” Heavens!!! This came from “Singham”… Actually the dialogues were flowing through. I hurried back to the OPD and continued with the pending patients. The day came up with innumerable dialogues like “Maine ek baar commitment kar diya toh phir main apne aap ki bhi nhi sunta” (Once I have commited to something, I don’t bother listening to anyone including myself!) which came from “Wanted”, “Halva hain kya?” or “Baarat mein aaye ho kya?” (lighter expressions of “Do you think it’s a joke”…) The list went on and on as I went through my daily routine. My shift ended at 5 pm and finally I got time to meet the gasping old man who changed my real world into a reel world.

I called the ICU postgraduate and enquired about the old man. The ICU PG said that he had done well for 6 hours. His ECG showed a “complete heart block”. This meant that the symphony with which the heart beats went into a chaos. Reason, well a simile may be that the Conductor of the symphony went behind the curtains. So, the musicians hardly knew what the conductor actually signaled resulting in the chaos. This chaos in our patient’s heart resulted in a reduced heart rate. And a slow heart rate could hardly pump blood into the brain and this resulted in seizures. The modality of treatment for this patient would have been an artificial pacemaker that would whip the heart to get a better heart rate. The old man was a farmer at 65 and a pacemaker would have cost him more than what he had saved all his life. So, he refused the treatment. He developed another episode of seizure, finally went into cardiac arrest. He lay in peace minutes before this call ever happened, when perhaps I was amusing myself in the reels of celluloid. I reached the ICU and the family had already left. I was told that the treatment would have cost him nearly one lakh rupees which he himself never wanted. He rather wished a peaceful death with his relatives at bedside. We were benevolent enough to provide the same. I came out of the ICU, once again (this time the whole of me came out) and started moving back to the hostel. This time, no music, no slow motions, no reels and no celluloid. It was as if someone put a big black cross on my masterpiece. It was as if “my” patient died… It hurt… It hurt deep.

But, every time that I get hurt, I try to find logic into that. It helps in diverting my attention and makes me feel better. I ask queries as to how and why do such things occur. And the World Wide Web has invariably always been a patient listener and guide for this purpose. I put “Pacemaker” in the Google search box and found… Artificial pacemaker as my desired search. I clicked on the link to Wikipedia and found that these are wonderful instruments which had a history nearly a century old. However, it was in the year 1958 that an artificial pacemaker was actually implanted in a human (that is nearly half a century ago). However, this old man at our hospital preferred death instead of spending an exorbitant amount on a wonder machine that would whip his ailing heart. We lost the patient in 6 hours from the time of admission to the hospital. Science is ever expanding with new machines and technologies that are developed each and every day. However what matters is to bring these miraculous machines to the common man, at a cost that he can afford. Advancement is a thrill and delight for all, but how we make these wonders work for the common man is the real challenge. And when some day this challenge is met, it would be a different world, perhaps like the ones that we find on celluloid…

So, until each one of us help take you to that world, Bon Voyage on this wonderful ride called “Life”. And as you sail along, do enjoy those brief but memorable trips to the world of dreams, the world of celluloid. Trips where the reels roll slowly, where you are the “hero”, where you feel each and every moment in life coming to you in slow motion as a background music plays along in perfect symphony. Just do enjoy these hard earned moments and believe “It’s possible!!!”