Contagious compassion

"Good morning ma’am........ may I come in for a few minutes please. I thought I have to share it with you.." This was an event when I was working as General Manager – HR in a company.

One of our technical staff was standing at the entrance of my cabin.

"Please do come in......." The open office system didn't require any knocking.

This is her narration.

"My mother had been complaining of pain in both her knees and I had been postponing the visit to the doctor as time was at a premium with two managing small children and their home works and projects..... Come what may I decided to take my mother to the hospital.

"It was a famous hospital and we were waiting outside the orthopaedic specialist's cabin. When mother's name was called we went inside but I was shell shocked and confused when I saw a paraplegic sitting in a wheel chair in doctor's place. As both of us hesitated  the nurse invited us and seated my mother near the doctor's seat."

 My goodness he cannot even open his mouth..................."  I was miserable.

When both of us explained about her pain he listened with great concentration and then signalled the nurse to direct his hand to the knees. The tests varied  with the man's hand touching and pressing various parts of her knees and the surrounding areas and all the time he was watching my mother's face for any pain symptoms.  The whole affair  reminded me of my village puppet show! 

When everything was over the nurse brought out a medicine list and as the doctor nodded his head as she ran down the medicine list and ticked the medicines and wrote down the same in the prescription pad along with the dosage indicated by the doctor. The doctor did a final verification of the prescription and handing over the prescription sheet to us the nurse requested us to take the medicine regularly and gave the date for the next appointment. That was just the last straw on this camel back ..... no x ray, no scan and with some fiddling the medicine was prescribed. My pressure was up! As I was in two minds regarding the purchase of the medicine when I heard a voice from behind with a "Hello how are you? And how are you amma (mother)?"

She was an acquaintance of our family working there as a doctor.

 "She was a God sent manna....." I thought and  poured my heart out regarding the doctor and his diagnosis or the lack of it.

"Can we sit somewhere" she said pointing to some seats "amma cannot stand for a long time."

"It is  a long story my friend........." she said   The doctor who examined amma is  a brilliant doctor who specialised in accident orthopaedic  medicine at Liverpool and while he was working there he got into a car accident. He was in coma for two years and after lot of surgery combined with physiotherapy he regained his hearing while he lost the movement of his legs and hands. After he recovered he resolved to himself that whatever he had studied should not go to waste and he wanted to forget about his disabilities too. He wanted to serve the people.

"But that doesn't justify his present position"

"Please listen ...." she said Patients come in large number to take his consultation and he can diagnose as well as any other expert doctor without burdening the patients with unnecessary expenses. Amma should be lucky to get an appointment from him.

I was loosening up. His simplicity was misconstrued by me as inefficiency.

"And do you know that he does all these work on an honorary basis and not only that he had created a special ward for people who had lost the use of their limbs below the waist due to  accidents. It is free of cost and many a poor people have benefited and are leading a life where they are able to manage their livelihoods by themselves." my friend was eulogising  

"I was ashamed of my wrong judgement madam.." she told me

"Most of us tend to form opinions before we give a deep reflection of the situation" I tried to soothe her misery.

"While I learnt a lesson" she continued "there is a miracle happening in my house...... There is paradigm shift in my mother's attitude. She says when a hapless man could do so much for the society  why should I burden myself with minor things as a knee pain. Now she runs around the garden watering the plants and fills the neighbourhood with  her bonhomie.

"Life is a continuous process of learning and counting the blessings my dear girl" I said and we shook our hands nodding in agreement.