Doctor Right

It was 15th July  2013. When I read the news of Dr.  Rangabhashyam’s  death my eyes swelled up in gratitude and great love and I remembered the surgery done on me by him four decades ago at his Ramana clinic.  For that great man  I might be just one among  his patients but the esteemed  place  he occupies in my heart is beyond words.

The incident is often narrated by me to friends who have medical conditions as a way of consolation and motivation.

The story goes like this: Except for my dear little girl who was all excited with an unexpected holiday in the midst of the year and  a bonus of a travel to Madras from Calcutta  to  grandpa’s place informing the same to all and sundry neighbours in her babyish Bengali and the infant baby boy with cherubic smile the whole house hold was in a shock.

 I had a lump at the left side of my breastt closer to the shoulder and it seemed to be getting big and pained some time. As an young engineer, new to Calcutta, my husband didn’t know to which doctor this condition should be referred to. The tested and proven place was Madras and that is  true even today what with Bengalis crowding Chennai for any major treatment. So with an infant in hand and his little elder sister, we travelled  in Howrah mail. My brother who was working as a doctor at Madras got an appointment with a well-known surgeon, a friend . He examined me in his consulting room and came back to his place and declared to my brother; "your sister has a cancerous growth and a suggested a surgery should be done at once and then by radiation  and then a test.....and then chemo....." he was going on and on.

 My brother, being a doctor, asked for more details  to make sure that the man was going in the right direction.

We couldn't believe our ears......... Cancer at 29...? There was no family history......And 1971 cancer was indeed a hideous word.....

We were so jittery that we didn't know how we reached home and shared the information with the family. Our family doctor who happened to be at Madras at that time came home and together we sat to decide the course of action. "He might be famous surgeon but he can also be wrong at times. How can he decide that the lump was cancerous without a biopsy? Let us go for a second opinion."My brother said.   Our family doctor proposed that we could go to another  well-known surgeon in the city  even though he didn’t know him personally. It seemed that he took cases by appointment. Arrangements were made and we got the appointment to see this surgeon a few a days later. The receptionist informed us “Please make sure that you are on time, the doctor is very  particular about timings and missing it makes you to get wait-listed and next appointment may not happen soon.”

Our  appointment was at 8 p.m. and we were promptly there at 7 p.m. There were not many people and we thought our call would not be far off.  We were used to the  of the crowded clinic of Dr. Banerjee at S.P. Mukherjee Road and got accustomed to how quickly he disposed of his patients. But that was not to be in this place.  The person who went inside the consulting chamber at 7.00 p.m. came out around 7.30 p.m. and similar was the case with the next patient too! This process astonished us.

Then it was our turn to go inside. I walked in as a sacrificial lamb. With his big smile in his big eyes he made me lie down on the examination table and the lump was analysed from various angles. Coming back to his seat he enquired the about the time the lump started forming . After some more questions he told us that it would be a minor surgery and if we wished we could have it the next day. The word ‘minor’ had a great connotation for us and then and there we decided to go through the surgery the next day.

The surgery was successful and when he visited me the next day he enquired about my health and informed me that my lump had been sent for biopsy and told me not to worry about it.

He came in the next day with a paper in his hand and asked me if I had fallen down somewhere or had violently hit myself or someone had hit me. Then I told him about  my train travel as I was carrying my three month old baby from my mother’s place in Kumbakonam to Calcutta . In the Howrah mail I had taken the middle berth with the baby beside me. At the middle of the night I woke up and turned myself suddenly to the other side imagining that I have pressed the baby but the baby was sleeping perfectly well. In the process of turning I had hit myself on the steel chain holding the berth and my left side was paining. And then there was the lump. Back at Calcutta I applied ointments, tried hot water bag but the lump seemed to have bulged and there was intermittent pain.

He asked me why I hid this fact from him. Again I did another explanation. I told the episode of  the doctor we first met (I didn’t  mention his name, neither did he ask for it) when I tried to tell him about the hit in the train  he laughed sarcastically and said the lump had nothing to do with the hit and that it was cancerous.

“Then it is congratulations to you!” the doctor laughed ,“the lump was a just a blood clot and now that it had gone out for good you can go back home a happy person. Go back to your Calcutta and enjoy the rasgolla (the celebrated Bengali sweet) !

He patted my hand with a smile and walked out. Those words and the pat was not just treasured by me but the whole household was filled with the good tidings  and the ambience was filled with uncontaminated joy!!

From then on if any one comes out with health problem at MTL we always referred them to that great man! A winner of the prestigious Padma Bhushan award and yet highly amicable to his patients  this man is a gem creating the needed confidence and who can easily earn a doctorate psychology too!!