One of our members, Ms Champa Rani Das, narrates how she coped with a critical medical emergency while raising her daughter more than 50 years ago. The remarkable courage and composure she showed at that point of time was commendable.
“A shrill cry of our one-and-a-half-year-old daughter startled us, and we found that she had accidentally swallowed the ampoule cutter while playing. We were in Amla, Madhya Pradesh, as my husband (an Air Force officer) was posted there then,” recalled Ms Das.
“After being dumbstruck for a moment, I regained my courage and rushed her to the nearby defence hospital. An X-ray showed that the cutter made of iron was somewhere lodged near her lungs, which needed surgery. They referred to the nearest air force hospital in Jabalpur as they didn’t have any arrangements to carry out such complicated surgery.”
Narrating about the turn of events, Ms Das said: “I, along with one of the soldiers, booked two tickets for Jabalpur and my husband stayed back with our nine-year-old son. The overnight journey reached us to Jabalpur and a pre-arranged ambulance took us to the hospital without wasting time. The doctors suggested another X-ray the next morning just to find out the location of the cutter. We had no choice but to stay in the hospital.”
“The next morning my daughter started to cry uncontrollably, and I found that the cutter was coming out with the stool. I immediately called the nurse and with little effort, it came out. Thinking that the trauma was over, we came back,” she recalled with relief.
“My daughter started to be in her usual jovial mood. Then one day, when I was busy preparing breakfast for the family, I noticed that she started to bend down. As I rushed towards her, I found that she was running a high temperature. Sensing danger, I took her to the air force hospital again and Benz, who was a very reputable doctor in the hospital, attended to her immediately, leaving all patients.”
“The fever was beyond control, so the doctors kept her covered with ice leaving the face out. The agonising wait continued throughout the night and the next morning, the doctor came out relaxed and informed me that she was out of danger. The doctor then narrated me about how a panel of doctors had fought death throughout the night to save her because she had acute septicaemia and the fluid in her backbone had also got infected. I got my daughter back from sure death and she is hale and hearty now.”
“It was the sheer power of endurance of my brave daughter and definitely because of doctors’ efforts that imminent death could be avoided,” said Ms Das with pride.
Categories
