20 legs

  I was posted in the Department of Surgery, Wenlock Govt Hospital, as an intern, along with two other interns. We had three post graduates in our unit.  The head of the unit of which I was an intern,  was a very disciplined, adept, no-nonsense, 50+ surgeon. There was even a news, which I happened to hear, that he was going to be the next head of the department of surgery of Kasturba Medical College.

      It was a Monday morning. It was my initial few days as an intern. An old lady, of about sixty years,  came with a huge swelling in the calf muscle of her left leg. She was accompanied by her daughter. The size of the swelling was as big as four tennis balls put together. She looked malnourished. Her entire body was filled with small swellings. The condition is called neurofibromatosis, in medical terms. I don’t want to put a lot of complicated words over here, because my non medico friends might start cursing me and stop reading my blog. Well, anyways..

      She was taken up for surgery after ten days. Our professor, one of the greatest surgeons I know, had decided to cut off her leg above the knee. The surgery went on, faultless. The nurse threw the leg in a bin meant to dispose off the waste stuff from the OT. But my professor said that the leg had to be sent to the lab to find out what is the cause for such huge swelling. Sending specimen to the lab and collecting the report is an intern's job in Wenlock. Since there was another surgery which I was supposed to attend, I asked one of the OT annas to drop the leg in the lab for the investigation. "Anna"  of OT is a guy who takes  care of spoilt switches, and other small but important things. They must have completed their 10th standard, maybe.

      A week later, my post graduate asked me collect the report. To my dismay, the specimen hadn't even reached the lab.

      I was having a quiet afternoon that day, when I told my post graduate about it. He started blasting me for misplacing such an important specimen. I was laden with the responsibility of finding the specimen, come what may. It didn’t seem like my other two co-interns were keen on taking this responsibility.

     So I set out to find the specimen on that hot Thursday afternoon. I went to the OT and asked  anna where he had dropped the specimen. He coolly said that he had dropped it in the MORTUARY. He said the corporation people  would have already come and taken it.  In case I find it, then its my luck itseems. Crap..

     I went to the mortuary. One guy opened  the mortuary for me. It was like entering a closed graveyard. The place looked ghostly. Smelled like rotten blood. I was sure about my next nightmare. [maybe like getting locked in this room or someone coming alive from one of the steel compartments].  I could see a lot of huge steel compartments. They were refrigerators to store dead bodies. He opened one. I could see a body, kept there after postmortem, for medico-legal purposes. He opened another door. There were a lot of yellow covers. The guy said, "YOUR  leg must be somewhere amongst all these" . I began searching desperately. A yellow cover was leaking, with god knows what. The other cover was stinking and ants were eating away the last bit of the organ remaining. I was praying that MY leg was safe, somewhere. There were 20 legs in front of me. I had to search MINE.

     Then finally I found it. I was thrilled at my success,  overwhelmed with relief and happiness. I was getting soaked with oil and sweat secreted from my own body. But it didn't matter. I got MY leg, finally. Thanked God for everything.

      I needed someone to sit behind me in the bike and carry the leg for me. I was alone. Someone gave me the idea ofasking the patient's daughter itself. I was tired. I thought that was the best idea ever. It was not. But anyways, she sat behind me, and held it for me. I didn’t tell her what was inside the cover. Imagine carrying your mom's leg in your hand, how would you feel, I asked myself. I just asked her to come with me, and kept the rest of the news to myself. She was a nice lady. She willingly helped without asking any questions.

     I dropped the specimen in the lab. I told about the entire plight to a pathology post graduate. He was nice, good-looking guy. He would update me everyday about the progress of the investigation.

      After 15 days or so, the report was ready. I submitted the report to my PGs.

      I had seen a lot of cases by then. But I never made the mistake of entrusting my responsibility to someone else. The whole experience taught me a lesson. To be self sufficient, vigilant and to only trust oneself, especially in this profession. Being an optimistic, I don’t want to disregard any of my experiences as bad fate .