Long Long Way to Go

Medical dramas on television have a knack of combining an inherent sense of reality with the imaginative fantasy about them. However realistic they may seem, there is always a certain degree of detachment from the audience because even though one could potentially relate to it, you would never imagine actually being part of this in real life. As much as I enjoy watching medical dramas of this kind, when you are faced with a similar situation yourself and expected to think on your feet because someone else’s life is in your hands, it does not not seem all that exciting anymore.

Though both my parents are physicians, I had never been put in a situation where I have had to look after people and watch first-hand the suffering of someone you very deeply care for. I had always shied away from such experiences prior to this as I felt that I would not be able to cope with dying and furthermore did not possess the medical acumen to be of any significant help in such a situation. I was thrown into such a situation a few months ago when my aged grandfather was terminally ill and in hospital. He had already acquired a lung infection while recuperating in the hospital after an operation. The family had then made a collective decision to move him out of the hospital room and into a more comfortable and familiar setting, his home in Bangalore.

My aunt and I, who were in Vellore at the time, were given the responsibility of accompanying him on this journey by ambulance from Vellore to Bangalore. This involved having to cope with caring for him on a moving vehicle, ensuring that the oxygen in the cylinder was on constant flow for him to breathe via an oxygen mask and amongst other tasks keep him suitably occupied so that he would not try getting up. The valve on the cylinder was found to be slightly temperamental and that required us to constantly check the flow of oxygen as with each bump on the road, there was risk of a change in the set flow rate. I, being the youngest and most agile of the lot, was designated the job of checking the oxygen flow periodically. This entailed crouching under the stretcher and shining a torch to check if the flow meter was in the same position.

The beginning of the journey was quite uneventful. It was only once we were in the outskirts of Bangalore that things started to get a little out of control. We got stuck in traffic and the previously quiet journey became one interspersed with sirens in an attempt to move ahead. After being jostled around for a short while and successfully managing to keep my grandfather firmly planted on the stretcher in spite of the numerous upheavals, we were on our way again.

However we soon realized that the driver and his assistant had been given the wrong directions. They were under the impression that we had to be taken to the hospital rather than our house and took the wrong turn. We were now in an area of Koramangala that I was unfamiliar with and an ambulance full of other people who had no idea where to go! This was a totally new experience for me, to say the least. After numerous telephone calls, a few more wrong turns and somehow managing to keep a cool head while pandemonium was breaking out all around me, we were able to get my grandfather back home before the oxygen cylinder ran out. We were back on familiar ground and I let the professionals take over as I heaved a huge sigh of relief that our part of the job was done.

This incident in my life is one that is going to remain with me for many years to come. Writing about it has helped me deal with the pent up feelings to a certain extent. I considered it a privilege to help out in whatever way I could in order to look after this man who has given me so much. I believe that by making this tremendous journey with us, it was his way of showing us that he had complete faith in us as individuals. I’m glad I was able to contribute and be a part of the team that brought him safe back to his home, where he passed away peacefully almost a month after this eventful journey. If you're listening, Appa..a big thumbs up to you too :)