Manik Goswami

Tragedy Classics

4  

Manik Goswami

Tragedy Classics

Apathy of Medical Care

Apathy of Medical Care

4 mins
212



Ananya's mind is awfully bad today. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she controls to keep that within her. Memories of the disaster that happened ten years ago are striking. Today is December 31. Exactly on this day, ten years ago, at dawn, a thunderbolt struck Ananya's life. The man who was the helm of the family, left the world at the end of the previous night. He had to be admitted to the hospital two days ago due to shortness of breath. He felt an acute pain on left side of his chest. The strength of the body seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. He was rushed to the hospital immediately. As the treatment was on, he started showing a little improvement in his condition of health. In a day’s treatment he felt better and started talking to everyone, even with the other patients in that room. In fact, the man was very amusing and sociable. He used to laugh a lot, loved to make noise, and always used to remain cheerful with everyone who might not be his friend.


The storm would certainly blow over the teacup as he got himself deeply involved in a profoundly serious discussions with his friends. There was nothing that could be left out of those discussions starting with politics to sports, economics to education, the mysteries of the country's corruption to the realities of science and technology. He was a man of great generosity. Whenever he had the opportunity and ability, he would extend his helping hand to the truly miserable, poor people. From donating blankets to them during the winter, he found joy in donating clothes or other garments even food materials to the needy during natural calamity, monsoon, and the puja.


The irony is that, for looking after the hapless people he neglected to look after his own health. Whenever he got a chance to visit places with his family, he used to visit to enjoy the natural beauty of the mountains or the sea, the meadows and the forests, the deserts, and harbors. To everyone, known or unknown, he was an ideal personality. Hence the day he left the world, the news of his end propagated in a whirlwind motion to the people to give them a real shock. Everyone from rich to poor, young and old, strong, and weak, came to see him for the last time. None of the people could hold back their tears on that very day.


Today, his memory comes back and knocks to the door of Ananya's heart again and again. What a great man he was, but the irony of fate was that he fell ill and was admitted to the hospital at a time when most of the doctors at the hospital had gone out of Kolkata for the Christmas holidays. Some junior doctors were handling the work at that point of time. Although the patient’s condition of health improved a little and started responding to the treatment initially, but there was lack of proper attendance to him. Just after two days, he had a repeat chest pain and shortness of breath again. The patients in the nearby beds shouted and called the sisters for looking after him for proper medical attendance that was badly required for him at that point of time. The sisters, all sitting together, were watching TV shows on that very night.


No one even bothered for a long. At last, on repeated calling, one sister showing all the reluctance on her face came to attend the patient. The patient was having a great difficulty in breathing, and he repeatedly tried to persuade the sister by gesturing that the medicine should be pushed in without giving him orally. The affectionate sister distorted her face, called the patient omniscient and forced him to take a tablet orally. The tablet may not have reached to stomach, the patient died of asphyxiation. The hospital authorities did not even realize that the news of the patient's death had to be reported to his family first.


They did not even bother to show that minimum courtesy. The family came to know that a thunderbolt had a strike on them only when Ananya reached to the hospital in the morning carrying a tiffin box for patient’s breakfast. Ananya was stunned to hear the news of death. Darkness came down in front of her eyes. It was as if the ground was moving away from her feet, urging her to sink into the abyss. Today is the return of that cursed 31st December, the 10th such reminder. The day comes back every year to keep Ananya shell-shocked in her heart.


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