It all happened on last Sunday, a highly forgetful day for me. The week that passed by was quite interesting and delightful for me as I was in hometown on Friday (having a long weekend this way). I would be busy with my thread ceremony on Monday, with all my family members, relatives and friends around. Friday and Saturday just passed by with the gathering which brought about lot of fun and happiness in my house. Sunday was going to be even more lovely with most of my relatives expected to arrive that morning.

But it wasn’t the Sunday that I thought of. I got a call from my friend Santhosh who told me about the expiry of our colleague Raju. It was disheartening and very difficult to know that Raju, an easy going and friendly individual, whom I could ever imagine without a smile on his face, during his tenure of more than 1year in our organisation. He would always tease others and have fun at office while not showing any dissent to his work, finishing off all the tasks assigned on time. He was hospitalised for more than two weeks undergoing treatment for lung infection (respiratory failure). He was shifted from one hospital to another with the hope that he could be saved from losing his life. The doctors expressed concern and stated that his condition was so critical and that there was little hope about life. Every one of us thought it was better to go for a second opinion on this. After several phone calls and discussions, there was one doctor, an elderly medical practitioner, who was a consultant in Apollo Hospitals. After going through the reports, he spoke in a highly optimistic way claiming that the patient was not treated well and there were chances of him being saved while agreeing that he was in a critical condition. He did
mention that the treatment would be costly.

On his suggestion, Raju was admitted to Apollo and put in ICU for almost a week. Unfortunately, as it happens in corporate hospitals, no visitor was allowed to visit the patient. The doctors would tell that the patient’s condition was improving (30%, 50%, 75% and then 99% being the recovery of the patient within a week’s time, as told by the doctor). But the doctor finally announced on Sunday that Raju was no more, and it was just about 10hrs after which he was stated to have recovered 99%. It took all of us by surprise and shock. How did this happen? It was so pathetic and misfortunate to know that Raju was no onger going to be with us. It reminded me of Raju’s innocent wife and his 1yr old daughter. What was pathetic was that the patient’s attendants were told to pay the final bill and take the body. I’ve heard of, seen on TV and in movies about corporate hospitals being money minting agencies and most of the doctors who are treated as gods, the minting machines. It was my first experience witnessing those buggers who would go to any extent to ransack patients of their lives for money. If only that doctor had accepted that Raju’s condition was indeed critical and could not be saved anyway, he would have helped his family save around Rs. 2 lakhs. Now, what do we do to those filthy bastards (this is the first time in my life that I’m using this word) who care little for emotions. Does the human element in them die and do they get infected by a non-curable disease caused by money? Why do they have to be so cruel for some amount of money? Just because they work for / invest lakhs and crores in building and maintaining speciality hospitals, are doctors entitled to rob people of their lives for some thousands/lakhs of rupees? I wonder if we can identify any solution for this problem.

For all that has happened, we lost a good friend. My dear Raju, Rest in Peace…