Every cloud has a silver lining- NEVER MISS THOSE SILVER LINES.
Many times life takes us on an unplanned journey sometimes good and sometimes bad as we humans differentiate it, but don’t you think sometimes a journey that we label as a bad one takes us to a good destination? Many of us can answer as yes! It is just the perspective we have in every situation.
Everything in your life happens for a reason, just believe in that, each day, every situation each seconds teaches you and transforms you into a better version of yours. So think before you complain about life.
2019 had massive floods, massive as never before. My town was at a safe place 30km away. Floods couldn't reach my town so why would I worry, right? But what if life made me travel those 30km and made me go there, but one might think, why would I do that?
So it was 3rd of August 2019, Saturday, my college had a half working day. So, one of my friends had to go home & she had a bus to catch & I was supposed to drop her on the bus stand but as always I was late, so we were in a hurry. Me and my friend were on my bike, me driving as usual and it was drizzling lightly. So I speeded up a little and suddenly a lady just crossed path with us. My bike was about to dash into her hence, in order to stop I pulled the breaks and the lady went away safely, but my dhanoo (bike) slept very badly. We fell down and dhanoo’s headlights were completely crashed but fortunately, my friend and I were safe. But as I fell down my head was lightly banged on the road, due which I was fainted. The crowd was gathered but I was fine! Yet, my father took me to the Doctor and here the journey started.
Doctor said that there's nothing to worry about, you will be okay in a couple of days, but if I faint agian, we will have to perform a CT scan. Then we went home. Slowly we were relieved from the pain and panic. Suddenly after 2 days I fainted again.The doctor decided to perform a CT scan. These hospital things scare the hell out of me. I always try to stay away from them. I have never been admitted in a hospital before. I am also afraid of a needle. I went to Kolhapur to get this over with and we returned with normal reports. Two more days passed and I saw complete darkness in front of my eyes. My father took me to the doctor but now to a neurologist in Kolhapur. It was a Friday. Mother packed us tiffin as we were supposed to return back to town within 4-5 hrs. It was a very big multi-specialist hospital and we entered the OPD , where a 60 year old knowledgeable doctor was waiting to speak to me. I told him about my accident and I also told that I am perfectly fine. Its just that I don’t know why am I fainting again. He smiled at me and said that I seemed perfectly fine, its due to normal hectic schedule and nothing related to my accident. He gave me a small tablet and said that I won't faint again and believe me, after getting that tablet I was perfectly fine. The doctor had noticed my father’s worry, just to make everyone doubt free he convinced me for a MRI scan. I was all right, having snacks, enjoying the travelling.
Then we went to a scanning centre where a gaint machine was waiting for me. After a while, my whole body was inside that machine for about 10-12 minutes the experience inside it was horrible. I was all alone. One can't see the rays but one can definitely feel them passing through the body. I just opened my eyes and was lying in the machine. I was out of it after the process and was 100% sure that all reports were going to be normal. It was 4pm and reports needed two more hours to be completed and then we would head back home. Waiting at the hospital I was chatting with my mother in the lobby. It was raining heavily outside as it was 2019. It was difficult to travel. I sensed a bit fever and as we were a waiting, we got a call from the scanning centre saying that the reports will be delayed and we will get it at 8pm. I advised my father to stay at my uncle's house in Kolhapur as I was tired, had fever, it was also raining heavily outside and we had to come back the following day for my last appointment with the neurologist. He agreed and we went to my uncle's house. At 7pm my fever started raising rapidly. At 8pm we got reports and as I predicted, all of them were normal.
But now I was worried about the fever. In the middle of night my fever was just going up and up and now Saturday had arrived. I had an appointment with neurologist at 2pm with all my normal reports which I thought would be last the appointment and I will be free to go home but you never know when life will take twists and turns. I was taken to the same hospital for my non stopping fever. Before the doctor arrived, at 11am nurse checked my temperature and said that I needed to be admitted immediately as my fever was crossing limits. I hesitated alot. Saline was my biggest fear. the concept that a metal needle will stay in a human body for a long time was so scary. A ward boy with 3 sisters and one assistant doctor came to admit me and finally they put needle and saline started dropping down. I was just thinking I had a appointment with my normal reports that too in an OPD but I was admitted at 11pm on the 3rd floor for my fever. It was 2pm the doctor came upstairs and he remembered me by my odd coloured nail polish. He asked that how did I ended up being there because I had fainted yesterday and I replied its the new thing now- fever. He checked my MRI reports and said that they were very normal. He said that he'll handover my case to a physiologist. Told me to get well soon and went. Then the rude physiologist entered and checked me, wrote a prescription of X-ray and a sonography. A ward boy came with a wheel chair and took me to the X-Ray department downstairs.
I was admitted in a semi-private ward. This multi-specialist hospital was very big having 100+ patients. I had no windows in my ward, only small exhaust opening. I had two more patients besides my bed with whom I used to talk in order to ignore my pain. One of them was a very simple lady and was from Karnataka. She talked to me in Hindi as she coulden't speak marathi. She had 5 kids. They were all at home. She didnt have any relative in the city and she was admitted since a month and yet she had a smiling face. She used to call her husband and kids at night. Her children used to ask her that when is she coming home and she replied saying that on Tuesday she will be having an operation and on Thursday she will be returning home. I was just observing the happiness on her face. She was waiting for that Tuesday very eagerly since a month. Her doctor was going to come from Bangalore. I asked her how will you go and she replied smilingly- by a local bus. Another patient besides my bed was an uncle who had some stomach problem he was admitted since 2 weeks and was getting discharged on Tuesday. My Sunday passed with an 11 salines, at mid night whole hospital was silent, only the sound of the heavy rain could be heared. At 3am nurse used to come again to check my fever, now my fever had touched 106. The nurse woke me up and said dear we need to connect another saline now itself. I could sleep for 2 hrs and again at 6am another sister with a very big needle came to take blood for a various tests. It was a Monday morning. All day they performed various tests like pneumonia, typhoid, swine flu, malaria, to find the reason behind my fever. and now it was very badly raining out side. That afternoon all my reports came and were normal. Only the last test was to be performed of dengue. In the evening dengue report came positive. Doctor said that now when we have finally diagnosed the disease we can smoothly run the treatment.
In the evening it was raining so badly that many areas in city had started going under water. As our hospital was very big it had main entrance above 6ft to the ground surface. The hospital had a very big ICU section where many serious patients were admitted. It had plenty of facilities. Other hospitals in the city were going under water, so central management decided to shift the ICU patients of other hospitals to our hospital as this hospital was safe. It was raining continuously. It started getting dark outside and for each 5-10 minutes an ambulance started entering the hospital with patients from other hospitals. The new ICU was being set-up for these rescued patients. The environment in the hospital had become pretty serious. We were having food on the third floor and suddenly we heard the noise of people screaming and crying loudly. I asked about the noise to a nurse who came upstairs. A very serious ICU patient who was being shifted from another hospital lost his life on the stretcher in the corridor. Therefore his wife was crying. Then they took the body outside the hospital...this is what the situation was! The number of ICU patients were increasing. All the hospitals around were reliable on this hospital. Now there was a small number of hospital staff available. It was raining continuously around 10pm and by now the ICU was filled. The women beside me was worried about her tomorrow’s operation, uncle was exited to get discharged and I was still keeping up with 12 more salines that day. It was 1am and everyone was sleeping. There were only a few nurses and ward boys in the hospital. It was a pin drop silence only heavy raining outside. I was fast asleep and suddenly the lights were off and i heard the noise of people running here and there. It was 2am and now all the hospital lights were off. everyone was carrying their mobile torch. this was due the blackout in the city and the hospital generator which was on ground the floor in the parking lot underwater. Yes, the water level had raised to 6ft above and our hospital was left with water and no lights. At home it's not a big issue but no lights at hospital was a terrible situation. All the ICU machines were shut down and all of the patients sustained only on the oxygen cylinders. All hospital staff was running here and there. They where helpless. That night was terrible, no one slept. It was completely dark. The uncle beside my bed got a sudden stomach pain and started screaming. His daughter who was younger than me started crying and pleading sisters to take a look after her baba’s pain. No doctor was available in the hospital. Everyone was helpless. Some patients were very bad with their health now. Not a single machine was working. Only one thing available was an oxygen cylinder on which ICU patients were reliable. No one could either come in the or leave it. There was no sign of rain to stop.
That night everybody thought if they were going to survive. Everybody needed to be rescued. Not only because of the 6ft water but also because of the pain that patients was going through. Somehow that night passed, luckily nobofy died.
Tuesday morning arrived. Water level now reached the hospital entrance. It had been 10 hrs since food was available in the hospital canteen, no technology worked, there were no doctors available. The ambulances in the parking lot were totally immersed in water. Precisely all the manmade things were useless in front of a natural disaster. A youngsters' rescue team arrived. They had only one airboat without motor on which patients were made to sit and they pulled it manually through a rope. Everyone was packing their luggage to leave the hospital as soon as possible. In this situation there where two types of people- who helped others and others selfish, like the hospital management who made sure that at least 50% fees were paid. Only then they gave discharge papers ,further medical prescription and then the patients will be out of hospital. It felt very bad to see this kind of humanity.
My father was in a queue for getting discharge papers since 6 o'clock. My mother was a little scared as it was just my third day at the hospital and all the staff was in the ICU and I was supposed to disconnect my saline by myself because I had seen and knew it. I made up my mind and disconnected my saline as well as the lady's beside me. Now I had to remove my needle, which seemed to be my biggest fear a couple of days back. I took a cotton and went to the watchman uncle of my ward and I askef him to press the cotton above so that I could pull the needle. he asked me if I was sure and I replied with there's no other option. Then I pulled my needle out. It was something I never thought I could ever do, but I have to. And this is the power of a situation. We packed everything and were heading downstairs but I noticed that the lady beside my bed was not packing anything and just sitting ideally. I asked her to hurry up so that we could go downstairs but she didn't move. That day she had no hope. It was Tuesday and she was supposed to have her operation but her doctor hadn't arrived from Bangalore as all the highways were under water. She said this was not that Tuesday for which she had been waiting. I said," we need leave this hospital hurry up! She said, "you tell me where should I go?" I had never seen a person so helpless before, with no hope. She was sitting on her bed and said that she was okay to die. I tried to convince her first to get out of this situation and then think over it. But she had lost all her hopes. She didn’t agree with me. I tried to convince her again, but she denied. I went downstairs and saw the worst situation going on with rescue process. The first preference was given to ICU patients and fortunately everyone was okay with it. All patients were gathered in the corridor. 4-5 patients in each cycle of boat were made to go out through an open boat. Some helping hand arranged food from outside and gave to every person in the hospital. There was a lady social worker. I informed her about a lady at bed no B-12 at 3rd floor and about her situation. That lady went upstairs running and brought the patient with her.
The patients from ICU were brought out now, some of them were children and some were old who had somehow sustained through the night. Many of them had pipes through their body. It was still raining. As the elevator wasn't working, some of the serious patients were brought downstairs by holding them in their bedsheets. The airboat could carry only a specific weight on it and hence, oxygen cylinders weren't allowed on it. The ICU patients who survived only on it had to disconnect them now. Only patients without any life support were allowed to enter the boat. I was standing, looking at all of this. I was totally blank for a while, but you know what did I feel after a bit? That I was very lucky that at least I am standing on my own feet. I felt lucky that, at least I was able to breath. I was greatful for however I was and thanked God!
At the same time there was another residential building besides the hospital under water. Those people were shouting for help. One thing that I noticed was, when it comes to life people become selfish. Now the hospital rescue was stopped and their rescue was started. It was expected from those people to understand the situation. They wouldn't die, they were in their homes. But yes people like these do exist. The hospital rescue was resumed after some time. All of us were given non used dustbin bags to cover ourselves up from the rain. It was the only thing available in the hospital. It was my turn to leave the hospital with my family. I sat in the boat with many other patients which included a 12 year old boy who was in a coma. The staff had made lie in the boat, without oxygen, covered with a paper. His eyes were closed and had no clue about the situation around. We were soon rescued out of the hospital. All the patients were brought out somehow. The media was waiting out there. Just a little bike slip haf brought me here. It mase me go through the CT scan, MRI Scan, X-Ray, Sonography, wheel chair and all kinds of tests. Despite all this I felt lucky that I was able to experience and understand the value of every breath. I was not scared of the hospital things anymore because I had seen the worst of it. Its all about the situation. Its neither the time required nor the days required to give you a strength but its all about a situation. A few hours can give you huge strength that plenty years can’t. My journey of the hospital was supposed to be of few hrs and I was supposed to come home within 4 hrs but we all returned home after 9 days.
Now I was a better version of myslef, who carried enormous strength. This experience taught me alot that any book couldn't. Its been a year now and still I am in contact with the patients beside me. They wish me on my birthdays and text them on their good days. We celebrate our aliveness. We are thankful for each of our day. Many say that I was unlucky to be caught in a situation like that but I think I was blessed to be there. The things I saw, experienced and through it will stay with me forever, because I believe that everything happens for a reason. Whatever happens teaches you something.
Moral:- I could understand and realized standing at the hospital stairs was not the 6ft water given trouble to people or making them die. It was electricity, elevator, overfilled ICU's, bid building, ambulances, big technical machines etc in short all the manmade things on which people had made themselves so dependable.. that they never thought they could die without them. That made the man helpless in front of 1natural disasters. Do identify the power of nature & restrict the technical development.
By - Sayali Patil
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