Seasons - Part 1 

The last couple of days at the hospital were tedious, the numerous surgeries along with a sudden spike in patients, owing to the humid weather has drained the souls out of the doctors, and me. I left my office late the previous night, slept even late and had to be back in office by 7 am today, to oversee the ordeals in the hospice, queued up for the long day. Responsibilities of the chief of the largest hospital in Punjab are difficult to jot down on a piece of paper, but to shed a little light across, let’s just say that I will be the first one to get blamed if something goes off beat.

Over the course of the 5 glorious years on the chair of the director, I have experienced the best and the worst life could offer, a journey so overwhelming and picturesque that, it could make a perfect plot for an adventurous and perhaps a little monochrome, movie.

The sound of someone knocking on the door interrupted my routine and foremost chores of the day, newspaper reading. “Sir, Manveer is here to see you again”, a nurse peeked her head through the doorway, like a turtle and informed, before rushing back to her wards.

Manveer Singh was the husband of Payal, a 28-year-old young woman, just diagnosed with 2nd stage stomach cancer. Treatments were in progress for weeks now, but since she wasn’t responding as intended to the medicines, the doctors had instead suggested for a surgery, the only plausible way to relieve her from the terminal mishap. The expenses for the same might come around 10 Lakhs, and for a middle class man like him, raising funds on such a large scale is nothing more than impossible. He had consulted with the administration and the charitable trust attached to the management, to give some aid for the surgical expenses, and they responded emphatically to his requests and agreed to fund him for quite an extent.

He had applied for a loan to take care of the remaining expenses but sadly, it was taking too much time to process and hence was looking unassailable at the moment. Her condition was degrading day by day and if we wanted the surgery to be lucrative, we had to go for it within 48 hours. But since he was far too short on funds, he consulted me a few days back, requesting over 80% reduction on the expenses as a last resort. Even though the exorbitance of such an appeal can be reasoned with the gravity of the situation, providing such big concessions are out of the question for the board because, along with providing state-of-the-art clinical services, they are also responsible for generating remarkable profits throughout the financial year.

In hopes to gain some thoughtful insights on the matter, I took the matter to Papaji, the ex-director of the institution, but instead of providing me with any, he asked me to come up with a rational solution, all by myself. After spending days hovering through my mind for an answer, to tackle the scenario, I was yet to arrive on a quick fix, and being the director of both the hospital and the trust, nobody but me has to give the final verdict on the request.

These thoughts kept my mind occupied, as he came in, holding a cover of paper in his hands, looking devastated and defeated. The sudden wrong turn in his otherwise happy life has stripped him off from the strong man he once was, to just a weak breathing body that could hardly maintain its posture and hold the ground, leaving him looking like a living corpse. He greeted and updated me about Payal’s current health condition and how she’s reacting to the medications, all of which I already knew of.

“Sir, Payal was looking delighted today. I guess I believe the painkillers are working, she told me she wasn’t feeling any pain since morning.”

Yes, to be honest, the painkillers sure are helping, but they were temporary, the numbness they provide will wear out in a couple of hours and if we don’t administer a fresh dose of the anesthetics, she will expose herself to the excruciating pain again. But I refrained from telling him these heartbreaking truths and instead gave a short reply.

“That’s great to hear Manveer, we are trying everything we can to save her, and conceivably she will survive the hard times.”

“I know that your hospital will take good care of her sir, that’s why I brought her here, so she could get the best treatment in the world, and I’m ready to give everything I have, to do so.”

“She’s lucky to have you Manveer, she knows that you’ll stand with her no matter what, and that’s one of the main reasons keeping her going. She wants to live with you forever and for that she’s fighting against all odds, we are just helping her to fight better and stronger,”

“Thanks a lot for the kind words, sir. It wouldn’t have been possible without your help, thanks for providing her with the best. I too believe that she’ll overcome these ailments soon and come back,” But without waiting for any replies from me, he continued, “For the past few weeks, I visited all my relatives, begging for money to help my wife, but most of them turned their faces away and refused to support. When I was young, my father used to tell me that one can learn a lot about a man’s character when you ask him for money. Every single word he said was true, all the people whom I loved nearly and dearly has withdrawn me alone, when I need them the most.”