Monthly Archive for September, 2010

Recently my grandfather had to be admitted to the ICU. His vitals weren’t stable and kidney was not functioning properly. Thankfully, he recovered and got discharged in 4 days. But those were 4 long days. Not only for him, but also for us. Trust me, you don’t want to be sitting in the corridor outside ICU chambers.

The hospital I am talking about is in BHU, Varanasi. You will find people from all sections of society there – from the rich to the poor. And it is the poor with whom I sympathize the most. There was this patient, a girl from a nearby village, who was pregnant. A few days ago her child died inside her womb. The family members did not care to get the dead body of the child out of the girl. Result – septic. When she couldn’t bear the pain, the family members got her to BHU and she was immediately admitted to the ICU. But even after spending 40K on her treatment, the doctors could not for certain assure the family members that she could be saved. They refused to pay for further treatment, and asked the doctor to let the girl die.

Occasionally we were allowed to go visit our grandfather (I know such things should not happen in ICU, but well). The ICU had 14 beds, each equipped with monitors to track the vitals. Green color coding tells you that everything is fine, yellow indicates borderline case and red is the call for immediate attention. Of the 14 patients, some 5 were in the yellow zone, and 2 in the red zone. In fact, once when my mother was feeding my grandfather, the doctor had to ask her to leave because the patient on the adjacent bed had his heart stop beating and needed the emergency procedures. The place is that scary.

On the fourth day, a patient was admitted in the morning, and by afternoon his dead body wheeled out. Every now and then a group of anxious family members would start weeping concerned for the life of their patient. Another neighbor of my grandfather had himself moved to a different section because his body had become too toxic and could have become a danger to the other patients. He died the same night. A man had been operated in the brain and collapsed into coma. For 3 weeks his wife and daughter had been coming to ICU.

All this definitely affects the patient too. The news of moving him out of ICU was a big relief for everybody. But I still think of all those people still waiting outside in the corridor, hoping their patient recovers as well, while fearing that death is too close to be ignored. I saw 3 dead bodies being removed in one day – ICU is the most depressing place I have yet been to.

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