The Empathetic Health Care Centre

Vrinda was an neuro surgeon. She had high intellect and professional competence. After serving in a private hospital for a long time in the beginning of her career, she got selected for a government hospital situated at the outskirts of a metro city. She was elated to join her workplace and was barely able to hide her excitement. On the day of joining she reached to the destination and was awestruck with the mesmerizing architecture of the building. The building was a medieval British structure with parts renovated as per Indian architecture as and when required. Above all the good things visible at first glance the white marbled texture of the major portion of the structure was most intriguing.

Vrinda could not wait to be a part of this area. She entered the premises and was received by other residents and then some senior colleagues. Everyone was warm and kind, they gave her certain initial guidelines before assigning the duty from duty chart. Vrinda took a deep breath and began her work by first going to her office which was in the second corridor right next to the reception area. She sat on her chair and filled her senses with as many details about the office as she can. Then, she called her helping and guiding assistant provided for some days. She gave certain instructions to him and then received her first patient with mild symptoms of osteoporosis. After prescribing certain tests and pills she continued to receive some more patients. By mid of afternoon she was free with the lined patients and then went for the lunch.

When she came back from the lunch after an hour, she received another duty to take evening rounds in the wards to get follow up of the patients admitted due to post surgery observations. Vrinda was joined by her assistant shortly and they started with the rounds from the end of her office corridor. Everything was just according to the expectations and routine followed by her till now. She was calm and relaxed until they left the front building to go to the wards in the other building at the back. Vrinda was speechless when she saw this building. This was an ancient one with some renovation on the outer front but, inside was clean and as vintage as possible. Properly planned walkways, broad corridors, vast entrance arches, broad cemented staircase with marble railings embedded in thick plaster and huge wooden doors. This seemed like another world in comparison to the outside building with a modern touch. Despite of the first look the building mostly had private wards/rooms. This meant that she has to meet individual patients who have occupied those rooms. She entered the first ward and was taken aback as she could not see the patient instead, there was another door and it seem to be leading to a long alley which was having a hypnotic charm of pulling someone inside. A curious and mesmerized Vrinda entered the alley and it kept on extending with more spiral turns and twists before it suddenly became steep and sloppy. She saw a sudden trench kind of formation and she leaned to have a look. To her surprise she saw a demolished car entangled somehow in between the sides of the narrow hole. Whether the car was in this shape because it fell down there or was it placed there in this condition, it was not clear. One thing was evident that whatever happened with the vehicle was a terrible accident. Shocked and breathless she ran backward and came out from the door breathing heavily.

Her assistant was standing and appeared to be waiting for her the whole time. He didn’t look confused or ready to ask a question. Rather he took Vrinda to the nearby water dispenser and offered a glass of water peacefully. After catching her breath Vrinda had a few questions to be answered. She darted her compelling questions in a single breath that why he was standing outside and didn’t follow her, could he also see the door leading to the long alley, was he aware of all this, why he didn’t say anything to her.

The assistant gave a meaningful and empathetic smile but didn’t reply to her. He politely requested her to open the door once again. Not sure of what to do and how to react she hesitatingly opened the door with all her courage. Once again she was received with a surprise. This time she could see a hospital ward or room with adequate medical ambience and an unconscious patient lying on the bed with his wife sitting beside on the chair. Vrinda felt her knees getting weak as it was a lot to take in. She grabbed the door handle tightly and closed the door to open it once again to confirm what she saw. This time also there was no alley and door, rather just the same room with patient and his wife.

Vrinda felt dizzy and sat on a chair in the corridor.  The assistant had a subtle smile on his lips. He seemed to be waiting for Dr. Vrinda to regain her better senses. After a few minutes when she caught her breath and appeared to be in control, her assistant told her to have a look at least one more room before he promised to give all answers to her questions. Gathering all the best reasoning competence she stood and moved towards the next room.

This time she was received by an open park with a broken swing that had blood stains over the edges. The sight of the park was not as soothing and fun filled as it should rather a sense of gloom was hovering in the environment. She ran back again and as it happened before, she was received by her assistant waiting for her once she was in the hospital area. Soon she opened the door of the ward once again as requested by the assistant and was surprised to see a little girl with a head injury lying on the bed and her parents sitting on the sofa lying at the corner of the room. She could hear the painful sobs of the mother that sent shivered down her spine.

At last unable to hold it all, she turned towards the only person who promised her some answers. At first she got to know the name of her assistant. Neil her assistant was working with this hospital for last two years and he said that he was expecting worse when she went inside the alley in the first ward instead, she was logical enough to speak and ask questions though her expressions were appropriate. As he mentioned that most people ran out of the building but she stayed and looked into the other ward on his request. All this while he was struggling to keep his amusing smile under control.

He took Vrinda out of the building and started strolling in the small garden in front. Vrinda was losing her patience but she went along and requested him to sit on a bench as she was still shaking. Neil sat down and started responding with a serious face. He explained that this part of the hospital was established by a famous neuro surgeon. He was a skilled doctor and loved his profession to great extend. He tried to feel the pain of each patient and planned a treatment that’s best suitable for him. He tailored the treatment with all his personal involvement for every patient. This was the reason that all his patients showed remarkable recovery. His name and fame was rising enormously but, he was unmoved by it. One day he got a little boy as patient who was found unconscious in the school. No one knew what happened to the boy and he himself didn’t regain consciousness to explain anything. Despite of all his efforts the doctor was not able to find the cause of his comma and soon the boy left to heavenly abode.

The doctor started feeling low after this incident and gradually he had more patients who were not in a condition to explain what happened to them, and he always felt that the details of the event that lead to this condition can help a doctor to plan best treatment. After he died with this desire some doctors started noticing these scenes in this building. This is the trauma centre and the patients who come here are mostly unable to narrate their plight. The doctor on duty gets a glimpse of these scenes when he enters the room for the first time. These visions help the doctor to understand what has happened with the patient and hence they could plan a treatment. Since she was entering the rooms for the first time she was made aware about the patient. The next time she could see the patient physically. Initially this frightened the doctors on duty and they decided to close the area but, later the seniors and the government officials decided to keep it open as they concluded these visions to be harmless.

Though, the hospital never forces any of the new doctors to stay here if they don’t want to but, except for a few most of the doctors decided to stay as they felt that it helped them to relate and connect with the patient and the possible damage they might have suffered.

Vrinda took some time to understand all this but then she decided to stay and serve his new patients in this empathetic trauma centre.