I See You (ICU)

Katpaddi railway station is in the state of Tamilnadu, India and is the nearest station of Christian Medical College, Vellore. My father in law was admitted at CMC, Vellore.

After getting a call from my brother in law, I had boarded Himsagar Express train in Punjab and disembarked the train at Katpaddi in an early morning of November a couple of years back. There were auto rickshaws on hire out side the station.

I informed an eager Auto rickshaw driver about my destination, a hotel near Christian Medical College. He immediately agreed to take me there and I started towards Christian Medical College.

After three days, my father in law was to be operated for a stomach ailment. My mother in law and my younger brother in law Kallol were attending him. They were staying in a hotel near the Medical College hospital.

When I reached the hotel, Kallol, my brother in law was waiting for me. He was ready to go to hospital to visit his father. He had booked a room for me at the same hotel. I checked in and went to my room to get freshened up.

I reached the hospital at 9 O'clock. I met Kallol there. He requested me to donate one bottle of blood for my father in law's operation. When I reached hospital blood bank, the technicians took blood sample to check blood group. My blood sample was also checked for any infection etc. When the sample was found healthy, blood was drawn from my body by transfusion.

There was no requirement of blood group matching with that of the patient at CMC. If one's patient required three bottles of blood, one had to deposit three bottles of blood through any donor and blood from the specific group of the patient would be allotted by the blood bank to the patient at the time of operation.

My father in law was suffering from occasional bleeding from the inner wall of his small intestine. Being a high blood pressure patient, the bleeding was frequent and blood would come out through excreta. The doctors had tried to find out the source of hemorrhage through ultrasonography followed by endoscopy, but could not locate any ulcer.

Now, they had decided to go ahead with the operation and check internally if they could visually find any source of bleeding. There was no guarantee that they would find the source but one had to take the chance and go ahead with the operation.

On the scheduled date, father in law was taken in a wheeled bed by the attendants for the operation at 12 noon. We finished our lunch quickly and came in the waiting room at around one thirty. We were then informed that our patient had been taken to the operating table.

There was a room near the operation theatre for the visitors who waited upon their patients undergoing operation. The ICU patients' visitors and the operation theatre visitors sit in a common waiting room at CMC. A number of sofas, chairs are kept in the waiting room. The visitors can wait for their relatives comfortably there.

One can observe that there are typically three types of patients in the ICU of a big hospital. The first category patients are those, whose conditions are almost hopeless and any time any mishap can happen to them.

The second category patients are those, who are out of danger and in a couple of days or weeks they would be discharged.

In case of the third category of patients, there is no likelihood of any change in their status. They are in the same condition, as they were in, for a long period and there is practically no hope for any improvement. In near future, unless a miracle happens, they would remain in the same condition.

The people who wait in the visitor room, anyone can observe and conclude in which categories their patents fall. In case of waiting people, whose patients fall in the first or second category, they are always anxious and expecting some miracle could happen any time. They would follow the doctors or the nurses in the corridors and would not spare even the attendants or cleaners to enquire about the condition of the concerned patients. Typical questions were, "Is he likely to be released tomorrow?"

-"Is he breathing without ventilator and on his own now?"

-"Has he got back his sense?"

The relatives of the third category of patients are always very few in number. The doctors have already lost hopes on the patients; the relatives also gradually give up any hope and continue to perform their perfunctory duties with little emotion attached. During visit, they are never excited about any development and are not looking forward to any miracle. If there is any good news, the attendant or the doctor himself would take initiative and inform them.

Out of sheer social obligation or formality, once in a while they would come, visit the patient, enquire the doctors if any improvement was noticed, all these actions are perfunctory without any passion and when they leave, they leave with a sigh of relief and get busy with their own worldly issues.

Kallol appeared to be tense. I asked him, "Are you freightened?"

He did not give a straight reply but smiled. My mother in law during her stay in the hospital attending her husband had got acquainted with a lot of other patients and their relatives in the ward. She stayed back in the ward. She was tense and possibly could not handle the tension that would prevail in the visitors' room, so she decided to stay back in the ward.

I started observing other visitors waiting in the common waiting room. I saw a beautiful young woman who was seated alone in a corner chair. She was very attractive and easily a crowd puller with her beauty. She would be around twenty three years of age, wearing a typical summer dress. Here I would like to point out that there is no real winter in the southern side of the Vindhya mountain range of Indian peninsula, so summer dress could be worn throughout the year. I was not the only person to be looking at her. I observed most of the people around were occasionally passing quick glances at her.

After some time Kallol realized that I was looking at that particular lady with interest. He smiled and told me, "I know the lady whom you are observing. There is a story that I have heard about her. Let us get a cup of tea at the canteen, I will tell you the story". "Alright, it is too early to get any feedback; we better have a cup of tea now", I replied and we proceeded to the hospital canteen.

The canteen was nearby. We sat there with tea. Kallol started telling her story.

"I am here for more than three weeks. From the beginning, I have observed that the lady comes here in the morning at around seven and goes back to her lodge in the evening. She stays in a nearby lodge to our hotel. That is the reason I meet her every now and then.

Out of curiosity, one day I asked an attendant about her. He told me that her name was Sunanda Joseph. She was married and her husband was Mathew Joseph, a patient in the ICU. Mathew was a Keralite. Sunanda hailed from Orissa. Sunanda and Mathew were residents of Jamshedpur. It had been only three months of their marriage. Sunanda's father was Ajit Patanayek, an industrialist based at Jamshedpur.

Mathew was a mechanical foreman in a local steel factory. Mathew was of six feet height and drove an Enfield Bullet motor cycle.

One day while Sunanda was going to college, Mathew happened to see her providentially and got immediately smitten by her charms. Sunanda was fair, tall and slim with a face of classical oriental beauty. He started observing her religiously for a few days and eventually Sunanda noticed it. He was a handsome attractive guy and within a few days he managed to speak to her during her walk to college. Although Sunanda was hesitant initially, but the ice broke without much effort from Mathew and then he realized that the attraction was actually mutual.

As it happens in most of the cases, Sunanda's father came to know about his daughter's romance with a Christian boy. Mathew being of a different faith, Sunanda's father was dead against her marriage with Mathew. Mathew in the meantime had informed his parents about the alliance with Sunanda over telephone. Mathew's parents, who were living at Kerala, were also not interested in the alliance. They wanted a girl from their own community as a daughter in law.

In spite of the differences, their love blossomed fully with time. As they were madly in love with each other, they decided to go ahead even against the wishes of their families and get married. And very soon they got married by registering their marriage. Ajit Patanayek tried all the tricks up his sleeves to break up the impending marriage, but once the couple had decided to marry, nothing could stop them.

Mathew, after their marriage, now decided to shift from Jamshedpur to avoid any altercation with his in laws, since his father in law was a powerful man with political links. As Mathew was a qualified skilled mechanic, he easily got another similar job at Rourkela, a nearby industrial city. They immediately shifted to Rourkela with all their belongings."

Kallol stopped to take a break on his story telling. We ordered for another cup of tea.

I could visualize the couple in their new place of stay. The conjugal life, immediately after marriage, is the formative years of a long married life. The couples plan their future and try to know each other's likes, dislikes, preferences, habits etc. Responsibilities are distributed, some of the dislikes get adjusted, some are compromised and a basic blue print for future is charted.

Physical intimacy plays an important catalyst too; it helps to reach each other at a level, not otherwise can be achieved in any other relationship, except marriage. This new found mutual infatuation gradually tapers off with time when with the arrival of a new born in the family; the baby gets all the attention of their small world.

Now, after a short break, Kallol resumed his story.

"Sunanda and Mathew had a very healthy and satisfying conjugal life. In a nut shell they were living happily, but the almighty might have thought otherwise. There was a major mishap in the factory where Mathew worked and the Mathew was the sole victim. He got hit in the hips and inflicted a major pelvic fracture.

Rourkela Hospital authorities after immediate medication, advised Sunanda to shift Mathew to CMC as they were not quipped to attend him. Mathew's friends immediately made arrangements for railway reservation and Sunanda brought Mathew to CMC, Vellore by train.

Sunanda's father came to know that his son in law had met with a major accident. He felt sorry but his ego was hurt. He decided not to come forward to help his daughter and son in law in the time of their misfortune and distress. Friendless, penniless Sunanda was left behind Vellore with the sole hope of Mathew's recovery.

For setting the pelvic fracture, Mathew was taken to operation theatre and was administered anesthesia. But after the operation Mathew did not regain his sense. Doctors were initially perplexed but understood later that it was a case of stroke and informed Sunanda that Mathew had a major stroke during the operation and fell into coma. They were not assuring anything. He could recover in an hour or he could remain in a comatose state forever!

While his newly married wife was waiting outside the operation theatre with patience and hope, Mathew was laid in bed in a state that was a nightmare for anyone whoever happened to be in that condition. There was only one consolation that Mathew being a Catholic Christian, all his medical expenses would be borne by a special trustee fund of the hospital.

Days passed but there was no change in the status of Mathew. Although there was no expense on account of medical treatment or his diet, but what about Sunanda's expenses on account of her lodging and boarding? For the last two months that Mathew continued to be lying in the ICU in a comatose state, whatever savings they had in cash or jewelry, all by this time had got exhausted.

There was nobody to stand by the penniless Sunanda at this time of distress and most of the relatives refused to receive her frantic telephone calls. Her father had ignored her plight; there was no connection or communication with the in laws. Friends initially did extend help, but once they realized that the ship was sinking, who would be there on their side?

Now, Sunanda's situation was hopeless and there was no way out. She met hospital administration for any job that was available with them, but she was told that there was no vacancy. Under duress, she started to explain her plights to the fellow ladies and requested for financial assistance.

A few were sympathetic to her, but not many were eager to help a distressed young woman. But they started gossiping about her misfortune to the others and thus her story spread in the surroundings. Some of the ladies started avoiding her and only under unavoidable circumstances, would reluctantly respond to her wishes. Everybody had their own issues to address and nobody had time for others.

Those ladies went back to their hotel rooms and discussed with their spouses about Sunanda. Now the men folks were also aware of Sunanda's precarious condition. All felt sympathy for her but nobody felt any compulsion to do anything for her.

Now some of the men folks discreetly started to pry upon her. They were those, who were staying alone with their patients in the hospital and aspired for some variety of fun to satiate their carnal desires without compromising their reputation. Being in an alien place they were eager to have some extra fun on the side, where they were temporarily staying and nobody knew them.

As Sunanda's financial condition deteriorated with time, there was a gradual change in her attitude. She decided to tackle her orblem on her own. She now gradually started entertaining those adult and middle aged people and started to discuss her condition with them. Once in a while she also started to accompany them to the canteen and would accept some snacks, a cup of tea or even lunch. Her transformation was complete on that day, when she accompanied a visitor to his hotel in the evening and stayed for the night there.

After spending the whole night in the hotel, when she came back to the hospital, she looked fresh and lively. That was the beginning of a new chapter in Sunanda's life. Since that day if any prospective adult male who was liked by Sunanda, she would easily fall for his charms and in exchange, she would take gifts or even money. The money thus earned possibly was spent on lodge rent, food bill and other day to day necessities. And thus Sunanda's never ending wait for comatose Mathew's recovery continued".

Kallol now took a break. In the mean time we had already taken two cups of tea and we did not realize that it had become dark. When we came back to the waiting room, we found that Sunanda was in deep discussion with a middle aged gentleman. After some time both of them left the waiting room separately. When they moved out, Kallol gave me a knowing smile that possibly meant that I must now have understood what they were going to do. I made no comment.

At 9 PM we were informed by an attendant that our patient had now been taken to his bed from post-operative care. Immediately we got busy with him. Father in law had got back his sense post operation and was responding to our queries by shaking his head.

In a span of two days he made remarkable recovery. During that time I used to frequent the visitor room. Sometime I would see Sunanda sitting in the visitor room talking to some unknown visitor; sometimes she would sit alone with a melancholic mood. I did never bother her.

My professional commitment compelled me to leave behind my in laws and I came back to my work place. In the mean time in fifteen days Kallol also returned with his parents after being discharged from CMC. Nothing could be gathered about Sunanda.

After about six months, suddenly father in law fell sick and died. My grieving wife with the kids immediately rushed to attend her father's last rites. Later, I reached on the eve of "Sradhdha", a post death religious function performed by the Hindus.

After the function, one evening I sat with Kallol over a couple of drinks and I asked him if he had any further updates on Sunanda. Kallol had made some friends during his stay at Vellore. The gist of information that he gave was this:

Sunanda was spending her time in the same manner as we had seen there. Then a gentleman called Mr.Das brought his wife with about ninety percent burn occurred in a freak kitchen fire accident. They had a boy of two years. During that period, Sunanda took care of the young kid. The woman however did not make recovery and died after a week in the hospital bed. After the demise of his wife, the widower took his kid and Sunanda to the hotel where he was lodging. They stayed there while Mr. Das performed the last rites of his wife. Sunanda continued to stay in the hotel with the kid. When Mr.Das left Vellore, Sunanda was seen to be accompanying him holding the kid in her arms. Since that day Sunanda was no more seen at the CMC waiting room.

Sometime back I uploaded Sunanda's story in an Indian portal covering mainly stories. Fast forwarding time to 2012, one day I received a private message in the portal where I had published this story. It simply asked, "Do you want to know what happened to Sunanda?"

I immediately replied and sent my cell phone number requesting to contact me. And promptly I got a call from none other than Sunanda. She told me she had just read the story and that she could remember me. She told me that I was slim, fair, bald and middle aged with a bent left hand. She knew me indeed!

I was surprised and asked her how she could remember me among all those visitors. She told, "You are one of the very few persons who never tried to be intimate with me when you were here. While I was struggling with Mathew at the CMC everybody tried to take advantage of me it appeared! And further, from your description in the story, I could recollect your brother in law too. I saw him many a times in the hospital with his mother."

I asked him,"OK, now tell me what happened to you, I am very eager to know, how your life took turns".

- You see, nobody knew that I was actually offered a position of governess for the kid by Mr.Das. I left Vellore with him as I was not able to sustain myself honorably any more. Out of sheer compulsion I had to give in but my heart was not there. So when I got the opportunity to save myself from all these wild wolves, I decided to preserve myself with a faint hope of Mathew's recovery. I handed over a note with the head nurse for Mathew, giving all the details and my helpless situation. She was aware of and sympathetic to my plights. I hoped in case he recovered, he would be able to know about my where about and condition. I was hopeful that he would be kind and gracious enough to call me back in his life.

Mr. Das had already a girlfriend, whom he intended to marry immediately. As they did not need a governess in the long term to look after the kid, I was again back to square one after their marriage. And at that time the miracle happened.

-What was that miracle?

- By God's grace, Mathew came out of his coma after about three months on his own! Being a well built youth with lot of physical strength and stamina, he had recovered internally in a splendid manner. When he came out of coma, extensive physiotherapy was administered and in a short time he was able to walk with a stick. Hospital administration was kind to him and considering his partial disability, he was offered a job of attendant by them.

He knew, with his disability he would no longer be able to work as a Mechanic any more and decided to stay back. He was eager to meet Sunanda and then he got the note from the head nurse. Reading the note, he was overwhelmed. As was expected of him, he fully understood the precarious condition I had to pass through; he was kind enough to condone my forced unfaithfulness. He immediately contacted me and the rest is history.