On that aspect of life : called humanity

Yesterday I was going with my wife to some place on my two-wheeler. While I was about to reach my destination, I saw two people lying on the road, presumably just after an accident a few minutes back. I immediately parked my scooter and ran to the middle of the road. One was a young man and another was a boy in his teens. Both were breathing, had been injured on the head but were unconscious. People were all watching, but nobody was doing anything. I immediately urged people to give me a hand to lift them one-by-one and then moved them from the middle to the side of the road. Then I called the emergency number (108) and called for an ambulance. I got to know that someone had already called that number and they were sending the ambulance. I was not sure when the ambulance would arrive, so I was waving the passers by to help us carry the victims to the nearest hospital. There was a huge crowd of people but everybody was just watching but nobody did anything. None of the people whom I was waving to stopped their cars. They just moved away. Some did stop but refused to carry the victims. Time was running out, I did not know what to do. But luckily the ambulance came and we shifted both the victims into the ambulance. The ambulance guy told someone to go with them. I said I will go. So I just asked them to wait and went to tell my wife to take the two wheeler to home and I would go to the hospital. In the meantime the ambulance went without waiting for me. I was told that a family member of the victims arrived and he went along. They were from the nearby village. I called up the emergency number and found out the name of the hospital. I may visit the hospital.

Important things of note here : -
1) Nobody did anything, and people were just staring at the victims lying in the
    middle of the road, bleeding and shivering in pain

2) Nobody helped to give a ride to carry the injured to the nearby hospital

This can happen to anybody. What are we going to do then ? Are we losing the basic sensitivity and sensibility that makes us human beings ? Where are we racing to ? Who all come under the purview of our family for whom we might stop the car ?

These are questions to ponder upon because someday it might be our turn...

The state of medicine as a profession in India

I was born in a village dispensary. It was a small govt. hospital with a limited number of staff and one doctor. Today after several decades, I was so disheartened to find out that the condition of that hospital is worse than before. There is not even a permanent doctor there. The root of this lies in the fact that today very few medical students want to work in rural areas. The govt. had made it compulsory to serve atleast one year during the intern-ship at rural areas or villages, and there is a fine/penalty for that. However students are happily paying that fine money and evading that part of the intern-ship.

There are two professions that are considered as noble professions, one is teaching and the other is medicine. Today both education and healthcare have been highly commercialized in India. I remember one occasion when I went to show my ear in a charitable hospital (Mumbai). The doctor after examining me said that my ear needs to be cleaned. So he cleaned my ear and then told me that my ear-drum was damaged. I asked him, what should I do. He handed me his business card and asked me to come to his personal clinic. I went there and found that it was not just a clinic but was an apartment where he had kept few beds and he would also operate there. The doctor then examined me and then told me that he might need to operate my ear. I was not comfortable with the whole idea of getting my ear operated. Luckily at that time a friend of mine was doing his post-graduation in Grants medical college in Mumbai. I went to him and he took me to one of his friends who was doing his post-graduation in ENT. Once he examined me, he told me that there was a minor perforation in the ear-drum and it would heal-up on its own. Over a period of time, my ear did heal-up completely. The perforation in the ear-drum was as I suspect created by the other doctor while cleaning my ear purposefully.

Many such incidences are happening across the country and the world. Medicine as a profession is being misused by a few misled doctors. I still believe 90% doctors are good. Its only the few 10% who are causing trouble. The govt. of India also has not been able to create good opportunities for doctors in India. Why would a doctor want to work in a rural area where his earning and lifestyle would be very limited. That is one school of thought.

Once I used to stay in a slum rehabilitated area in Mumbai, part of the slum was still there. I once got a very bad fever. So went to the nearby clinic. This was a modest clinic and I found that many of the slum dwellers and poor people were my co-patients. The clinic was operated by a couple and both the husband and the wife were doctors. The fees was meagre twenty rupees and the medicines were also provided by the clinic within the twenty rupees. I was completely cured within a couple of days. So many people were continuously being benefited by that clinic. The couple was from a middle class background and could have earned a fortune if they would have been working for a private hospital in Mumbai, but they chose otherwise. That was service, service to mankind. As Swami Vivekananda said, "Service to fellow beings, is service to God."

Today India and the world need good doctors to reach out to the unprivileged, the poor and provide good treatment to them when they cannot afford any. There are billions of dollars of black money and scams that the politicians are pocketing. That money can be used to buy food, medicine, healthcare, education etc. Promoting generic medicines is so much needed. Today the whole nexus of medical insurance, private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are in one way extracting money from those who can afford (which is only 3% of the population of India) and at the same time depriving those who cannot afford (which is 97 % population of India). The Modi Sarkar has to take steps towards these. And we as citizens need to do our part.

I am planning to visit medical colleges and talk to the students to motivate them to work in rural areas and serve the poor and also to complete the one year mandatory intern-ship in villages. Why don't you also join me ...