Doctors and teachers, both are literally angels. At least, they are supposed to be! Sure, the best amongst them ARE indeed so as well! And, yes, the worst amongst them are devils. But being devils, that is the easiest for most, the commonest of the commonest, the weirdest of the weirdest, and, especially, the so-called intellectuals of all shades and hues/views are excellent at this game!
As for the doctors, I met many of both the varieties, the best and the worst, the angels and the devils, as I was Aai's prime caretaker, or caregiver in the new parlance! I realised then that for most members of the medical community, geriatric patients are either negligible or are milch cows. If their children are medical insurance enabled, they are source of dirty monies.
Otherwise though, they are the most negligible. Once, in a major hospital, as I was waiting on Aai in the waiting ward till she got the special room, an old lady in her mid-eighties who was to undergo a major operation the next morning, had to shuffle to the bathroom. I shall never forget the sound her backbone was making as if each bone/joint was playing hide and seek with the other. Was the doctor on night duty, the nurses were they bothered? No way! I requested repeatedly that she be given a bed pan, then took her to the bathroom myself. Every step was excruciating pain for her, but was the medical fraternity moved? No chance whatsoever!
In fact, the geriatric patients indeed get the worst out of the medical community. In January, 2021, when the nursemaid (about this great community, ask ANYONE who had to suffer the misfortune of meeting them, and you would get to hear terrible horror stories!) made Aai gulp fast (as the grand lady wanted to attend a marriage but also wanted to finish off the day's duties hurriedly so that she could get the full day payment. How do my protests matter anyways, right?), and Aai choked on a big spoonful, I had to take Aai to a major hospital because how else could I get her any medical assistance in any other way, right?
When her local doctor asked me to get her oxygen (I tried that also, believe me!) and put the phone down, and as Aai was gasping with her O2 levels prancing wildly from 70 to 20, I took Aai to a major hospital. The attendant doctor on duty in the emergency section looked at me as if I was the covid/corona virus itself! That first glance! Woh paheli (please note the pun!) nazar, indeed!
When Aai was finally admitted to the ICU, the attendant doctor (young! but, of course!) there gave me an almost hour long lecture about how I was unnecessarily troubling the old lady by getting her to hospital, about how he would have allowed his granny of the same age to die at home, and so on! Some counselling in distress indeed!
The nurses, except one from Goa, would treat all the geriatric patients in the ward as a headache. Once the on-duty doctor yelled at me hugely because I requested her a second time to look at a sore like lesion that developed during the hospital stay, a request she had chosen to completely ignore even after an hour. Incidentally, if the family caretaker was not bothered, the feed would never get given on time. My solution was I learnt myself how to go about the feed.
True, doctors, nurses, mavashi's, yes, they are all human beings. They do need rest, even on duty. Undoubtedly! But then who are patients? Are not they human beings?
Well, the message clearly was, the elderly do not merit any emergency treatment, and better die quickly! Oh, yes, one day, each one of such worthies is going to fall ill, every one of them is going to die, hopefully not as a geriatric patient! What if they were to get a swig of their own medicine, the indifferent treatment! Do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you, in brief!
Pratima@ Doctor, heal thyself!
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