Human suffering has this unique quality. Not many people can take it regularly. It breaks people. But at the same time those who see it regularly become immune to them. Death becomes a day to day event for them. But again at some point it scares the hell out of those same accustomed people.
During his initial days, he too was upset with his job. He may deny it, but many say he regularly cried in secret. It affected him so much that once he left the job and went looking for some other work. And it took a lot of effort from his soul mate and his colleagues to bring him back. Someone advised him to get professional help. He kept aside all his skepticism and criticism and saw a shrink who advised him to keep a letter pad, write down all those events, tear it and throw away. He did find solace. He recorded almost every single patient he carried. A small child with pneumonia. An old granny with asthma. A terminal cancer patient who was gasping and a young lady who was about to give birth to her first baby. After all patients come in all shapes and sizes.
But this time it was different.
His childhood sweetheart, who was from the same orphanage, was carrying and was near her expected date.
He had gone to shift a renal failure patient to a far away super specialty hospital. It easily took more than 8 hrs. to reach in moderate traffic at the highway. He collected the last part of fees, handed over the patient along with stats, progress notes, and other charts. Entered the details in the register and came back to his ambulance. He was hungry. He took out his cellphone and called his wife. She didn’t pick. He texted her-
“Hi sweetheart, I’ve just handed over the patient. Going to have something and will leave. I will reach approximately at 7 am in the morning. Say hi to our child. See you soon.”
40 min later he finished his dinner and took out his phone. No response. He walked to his vehicle calling her once again. No response. There was slight uneasiness. He called to the landline. Again there was no response. The uneasiness grew stronger. He hesitantly called their neighbor, her friend Chitra. She picked up and said she’ll check on her. 10 min later she called him.
“I don’t have much time, but Ananya is in danger. She’d collapsed in the house with a large pool of blood. We’ve called an ambulance and taking her to the hospital. Don’t drive madly, she’s still breathing. Drive safe. Bye.”
She said all this in one breath.
“What..??” was all he could utter before hanging up.
He didn’t know which one sent a chill through his spine- the cold door handle or the call.
He called Chitra. No response. He called again. No response.
He looked at his ambulance and at the sky then towards the direction of his city. Vehicles passed by him on the highway without bothering. He sat in his seat. His hands were trembling. Beads of sweat appeared in no time over his forehead. Started his ambulance and was back on the highway.
A million things passed through his already frightened heart.
That first-time pregnant lady who was knocked down by an unknown bike who sustained a hip fracture.
That woman pregnant for the fourth time fell through stairs and sustained spontaneous miscarriage. She survived but her baby couldn’t.
And that 27y old lady with severe antepartum bleeding. She died giving birth to her baby which was fine except mentally retarded.
And that 21y old lady with repeated seizures who bit her tongue so much that she suffered aspiration pneumonia which means she drowned in her own blood and vomit and died.
He thought, Even with this traffic and me driving with lights and siren on, I may reach 6:00 am minimum. If I drove with high speed I can barely make it to 5:30 am.
His worst nightmare- driving the ambulance for his own sake had come true.
He drove all night. Many gave way to the ambulance as soon as they saw lights and heard a siren. Some didn’t bother. After all people die every day. No can do anything about it. They thought. Some even tried to overtake and some succeeded. He thought of every possible way that could delay his journey.
Flat tire, burst tire, engine problems, leaking fuel tank, traffic jams, hitting someone and so on.
“What’s wrong with me.? Why am I thinking all these negative things? She’ll be fine. It’s just small bleeding. It’s common in pregnant women near dates. And maternal mortality rates are very small in my city.”
Then a voice inside his head told…
“What if your wife came in that small percentage?”
His fear overpowered him and he drove faster.
He reached the hospital ground at 5:50 am. He didn’t bother to park it and ran towards Emergency/Causality complex.
The duty sister said she had been shifted to OBS/GYN wing.
He ran again. Climbed two flights of stairs and banged door of nurses’ station, panting.
Then somebody touched his shoulder. He turned. It was nurse Hema.
“Congratulations. You’re a father of cute little angel. Her mother is in Post-Op/Intensive Care Unit recovering from anesthesia. You’ll see her soon. Here come take a look on your baby girl.”
“What about that massive bleeding?”
“Oh, it was her waters mixed with slight bleed. Looks like a pool of blood to untrained eyes.”
He didn’t speak any further. He just stared at the sister.
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.
coffee thoughts and me 