Sir,

This refers to Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem’s column Over A Cup of Evening Tea in SOM dated July 31. His article titled “A Medley of COVID Comedies!” was so down-to-earth that one may think it was a writer’s fantasy or exaggeration.

But those who have personal experience in Hospitals, Pathology Laboratories and about a variety of tests a patient undergoes for diagnosis of the problem or before he is prepared for the surgery or procedures will 100 percent agree with what Dr. Nayeem had written. I am one among them.

Let me recall just one incident because of which, probably, I am able to endorse Dr. Nayeem today.

In the article, Dr. Nayeem mentions of a long letter written by that disheartened correspondent-patient about the bad condition of the wires of the ECG machine in the Hospital (Dr. Nayeem sent him there with best of intention) and the difficulty with which the nurse recorded his ECG only after more than one attempt.

Dr. Nayeem tells that disgruntled patient: “With frayed wires, tangled or untangled and at the first attempt or the fourth, what makes sense is that the ECG taken there made perfect sense to me that despite your frayed nerves, you are indeed a good hearted man, worthy of my friendship, with your robust heart beating soundly in your manly chest! So let’s celebrate that !!”

Yes, if I am celebrating my life today, alive and kicking, it is because way back in 1993 an ECG Lady Technician of Kamakshi Hospital took my ECG under the same situation that Dr. Nayeem’s patient had described. In fact, worse.

Dr. C.D. Sreenivasa Murthy (CDS) was my doctor who asked for the ECG. It was only in the fourth attempt the ECG came out properly. There was a loose contact, power failure, not once but twice. I was annoyed and said would come another day. But the Technician, Mrs. Muktha Achar, apparently afraid of CDS, desperately pleaded with me to co-operate. I did and when the report was shown, Dr. CDS and Dr. K.R. Kamath told me the bad news. They did not allow me to go to office, from where I had gone to the Hospital driving the car myself, connected me to my wife and took me to the ICU on a wheel-chair.

I am beholden to that ECG Lady Technician Muktha Achar, Dr. CDS and Dr. Kamath of Kamakshi Hospital and Dr. Vivek Jawali of Wockhardt Hospital in Bengaluru for their service as TRUE professionals. Let us learn to count our blessings, not find fault with trivia.

– K.B. Ganapathy, Mysuru, 5.8.2020

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