Saturday, September 20, 2008

Triage: Prioritising Lives

(0% fiction,100%realty)



“Life was created…or perhaps it sprouted up from nowhere all of a sudden. I was born. I needed air to live. I breathe in and out at least 16 times in a minute. I never care if what I expire can choke my neighbour. I have power. I can create life but not at the same pace at which I take it. “



The stethoscope that adorns my neck was once an ornament that made me ‘look’ a doctor. It set me apart from a nursing student who too wore a white coat. With the passage of time, it let me hear the non-stop machine that panted ‘lubb dupp’ and now I was using it to detect life.

The heart still beats”, shouted Neha. We were rushing to the SICU (Surgical I.C.U). I was holding the Ambu bag. I felt thrilled. I was pumping life into him…oxygen.




I knew he was breathing. I didn’t care if it were the last puffs that he got to gasp. A multitude of thoughts flashed through my mind. I didn’t exactly know why the M.O (Medical Officer) chose us to accompany the patient; did he overestimate the fourth year students who were posted at the emergency room?
(The patient was brought 15 minutes back, drenched in blood; an old man in his sixties; a case of road traffic accident. He had sustained severe head injury)

I could see his abdomen rise and fall…rise and fall…yes he was alive. I kept on pumping, a puff every 5 seconds.

I wished the elevator would ascent faster.

Neha once again checked if the tiny organ was still panting. Yes, it was.

Lubb dupp…lubb dupp




The attendant who pulled the trolley seemed to carry a ‘mask like face’…the kind of face that one gives when suffering Parkinsonism. He was sweating just like us.

The poor old man who lay in the trolley knew nothing; he was helpless and not even his pupils could move in response to light, the energy that keeps life alive.

People who flooded the corridor gave way for the sprinting trolley.




Someone else was panting too…running at the same pace as we were. It could been his son or brother or a relative. I was damn sure the guy was not a stranger filled with compassion.

Finally we reached the SICU (Surgical Intensive Care Unit). Our job was over, the patient was ‘delivered’. Now all that I cared was to get the Ambu-bag back (the surgery casualty was short of supply and SICU had its own Ambu-bags).

“Hey do a CPCR!” yelled a house surgeon.





Why me? I have never done this before. I checked if Neha was puzzled just like me…no…she was about to jump over the patient to break his ribs and give the lifesaving resuscitation.

Well in that case why should I miss my chance?

“Sir…errr…I need a demonstration…or in plain terms…I am short of confidence”, I spoke, and waited for the house surgeon to shout.

But he was cool and calm and taught me how to do it.

1-2-3-4-NOW…’I said and Neha pumped the bag.

After a couple of tries, I turned to Neha, “Want to try?”

It was Neha’s ‘chance’ now and I took the Ambu-bag from her.

‘Okay, that will do’. The house surgeon checked for a carotid pulse. With his fingers still on the patient’s neck, he turned to the fellow resident and asked if the patient ‘really’ required to be put into a ventilator.

I didn’t understand why these guys were damn so cool. What the hell where they waiting for? This was why ‘we’ soaked our coats…drenched ourselves in sweat?

It took me a couple of seconds to get a grip on what was going on. The poor old man was almost dead…perhaps the brain was already off when we rushed him out of the emergency room.
The Medical Officer had done all that he could do within the four walls of the room. So he sent us with this patient. He was correct. By this time at least five new emergency cases would’ve got attended by the senior residents, who were back at the casualty, seeing to patients who had better chance to ‘survive’.



The stethoscope was not fabricating sounds. The beats were kept alive by the injected Adrenaline. They receded once the action of the drug exhausted. The abdomen did not move once I stopped pumping oxygen. A ventilator…the ultimate and the last hope to rejuvenate life…must be reserved for a ‘better’ case…someone who had a 0.1% better chance to survive and not a ‘dead’ patient.

We had ‘lost’ him on the way to the SICU.

Neha and I walked out of the SICU. The guy who was running with us was waiting there…I didn’t know what to say.

‘Sir, please…I can stand anything…please say…is there a hope?’

“Well…we are trying all that we can do…” before I could complete, Neha interrupted, “The chances are too low”.

I felt a bit frustrated…felt offended.

Who cares…? It was 8.00pm and our shift was over.

I returned home…having learnt something new.


‘TRIAGE’… Prioritising ‘Lives’.

Someone was dead and tomorrow his body will go through the post-mortem examination…torn open, and then sutured back…samples will be sent to various laboratories…final reports will be written.
Someone will shed tears; some others might smile; weeks or perhaps months may pass and all will be back normal.




(Triage means the assessment of the seriousness of wounds or illnesses to decide the order in which a large number of patients should be treated. CPCR stands for Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation. A ventilator is an equipment that maintain a flow of air into and out of the lungs of a patient who is unable to breathe normally)

(Thanks 2 diva nawale, de title sprouted up during a chat session, and Amooma...i broke her sleep just 2 read out de entire post !!! and Azgar)

(entrant for Get your story published in The Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul – Indian Doctors at BlogAdda‘)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

‘I’ AM HERE… Or MAIN CHETAN BHAGAT BANNA CHAHTA HOON



“Hey, I’ve updated my blog…check it out”

A while later, I am hit with a reply-

“Hoo…it’s ‘too long’ pal. I have better things to do”

This was one moment that made me feel proud of myself…I successfully held back from replying

Yeah…go…do the ‘better things’…don’t forget to get a condom…”

Sirji…what a ‘self-control’!!!

Yuckkkkkk.

So is this what a ‘blogger’ gets? Hmmm…I’ll stay here…anyway.

Well this occurred few months back…January to be exact…when I stepped into the blogosphere.


Weeks back…


I scrolled through the preface of ‘Five point someone’…even before reaching the prologue, I said to myself, “Hmmm…one day…I’ll create ripples…write something…and I’ll be another Chetan Bhagat”. I bunked the day’s posting (well…folks…bunking ‘surgery casualty’ was not new…just that…now I had a reason…!)

Once I completed the book…I said to myself…

Hey there’ll be a day when people say…’Chethan? Did you mean Nithin?’

He he…fortunately, dreams are never taxed…!!!


For few days…I was mad…desperately trying to get hold of the next book that he penned ‘One night at the call centre’…I didn’t get it… finally I bought ‘The three mistakes of my life’…I stressed ‘bought’ since reading a book is something that I did on every blue moon night and ‘spending’ money to buy a book was a thing that occurred on days when all ‘navagrihas stood in a line’

I finished the book at a record breaking speed that made me realise that if I read Harrison’s Internal Medicine so fast I would master the subject in months and become the new big thing in class…!!!

“Main Chetan Bhagat banna chahta hoon”

Few days later, I heard that the writer landed in Kerala. I read the interviews that filled newspapers.

The release of ‘YOU ARE HERE’ by Meenakshi Reddy…blogger-turned-author was another major event.

'Oh! The time is ripe' I said to myself…

The days that followed saw a dreamer…who kept aside his textbooks…stethoscope…what more…even my mobile phone…!!!(Nithin minus his mobile phone is a rare sight…and I promise…if there’s a paparazzo with a shot of me sitting without holding a mobile phone, let him try e-bay, he might get quite a lot of bucks!!!)


I recalled one of the most wonderful books I had read, ‘The god of small things’…the book that made me proud of being a malayalee (kudos to Arundhati Roy!!!)


I forgot simple questions like,

“Hey what would you do if your mobile phone didn’t have a thesaurus?”

“Hey what if Microsoft never added a spelling and grammar check or the auto-correct option?”

Yes…I had decided to become the new big thing…though in reality I was a ’blogger-turned-dreamer-turned eccentric medico’.

What did I have to fear? After all it is Nithin…the pompous-swashbuckling hero…with an ever-fresh mind ready to take up anything!!!

It didn’t take such a long time to return to the normal mood…

The following ‘events’ helped:


1) The article ‘Half naked in the flat’…a review of ‘You are here’ by Lakshmy Venkiteswaran (the New Sunday Express, Sep 14,2008)

“….Chetan Bhagat’s appalling and irksome novels becoming record-breaking best sellers”


2) The article ‘Book,booker,booked’…by Meena Kandasamy(the New Sunday Express, Sep 14,2008)

“The beginning of the book can give you a sense of déjà vu.

But after40 pages, you may skip paragraphs and then pages…”


3) The medical texts that I had kept arranged on my computer table-to remind me ‘I had lots to learn’!!!


4) A telephone conversation: “da remember Chetan graduated from IIT Delhi, then got into IIM-A, and finally settled…and then he penned his book…and you have too long a time ahead to graduate your MBBS”


5) The ever increasing tummy (ahem ahem de single mega pack) that the sedentary times I spent in front of my computer monitor had gifted me.


6) A recent exchange that took place in my kitchen

Chechi: ‘da get the uruli from the shelf, I can’t reach it’

Nithin: ‘Chechee…my eyes can’t catch a glimpse of the uruli…!!! Where is it?’

Chechi:’OH!!! This checkan (checkan=lad)…da an uruli is the thing that is right in front of your eyes.Take it’

Nithin: ‘ooops….i was searching for the tool that we use to make chapathees’

Chechi:’eeeeswaraaaaaa…nee ethu lokatha?(oh god…are you still on earth?)

I realised that being logical alone isn’t sufficient…URULI in Malayalam referred (as I had thought) to something round…!!! ‘Reality’ was different.


FINALLY I STEPPED BACK INTO THE WORLD WHERE PINCHING WOULD PAIN…


So world…’REST-IN-PEACE’…for now…


There will be a day.


A day...when… Kalidasa or Shakespeare will book tickets back to earth to thrash the newly unleashed terror!!!

Mera number aayega…!!!




Nithin:" So howzzat?"


Xyz: "Wow, Nithin, that’s a cool write-up. But why the hell are you so excited?


BLOGGING ain’t such a biiiig thing…"


Fortunately…I COULD RESIST FROM REPLYING


”F*&*% you”



(PS:K...Im baak...an official 'post' after a long time...this time...i need u 2 shoot...
holidayz r almost over...
;(
wid lots of luv...yers Nithin)

thanks 2 Smriti Srivasthava
and Amooma)

(I am one huge fan of Chetan Bhagat...and I am one guy who wishes for
Chetan's dreams of becoming India's favourite writer come true...
in my post i never compared myself to him...ooo...this has been typed in after going through the comment page)

Friday, September 12, 2008

i am a Malayaleeeee....!!! god's own !!!!!!




...wow...!!! de first Onam after i entered de blogosphere...!!!!

hooooooiiiii..yippie......!!!

wud hav luvd 2 type in sumthin 2day...

but both amma n dad r gonna lit ma tails if i glue my butts on 2 de chair in front of de monitor 2day...!!! lozz of works!!!! he he...of course completin de ONASADYA (de grand feast dat makes one proud of being born a malayali...) tops de 2do list...!!!

N dis ONAM has another specialty...!!! Dis is de first time i wish people thru 'missed calls'...im bankrupt....left wid 1.30Rs in ma mobile...!!! N Airtel network is havin a real sadya(=fest) wid de all de customers forgettin dat on dis days no offers r valid..!!! They say 'it's 2 avoid traffic congestion'
(so dis is applicable 2 prashant..he he...dats wat my missed call meant)

so here r few things dat evry non-malayali misses:



de ONASADYA

yummyyyyyy!!!!
...i bet even Kalidasa or Shakespeare
will fall short of words 2 describe it...





de PULI kali...!!!

puli=tiger...!!! (2 know wat a real puli is better ask diva...i'd explained it 2 her he he..)



de Vallamkali...!!!
(yupp dis is kinda exaggeration..honestly i haven't seen a vallamkali dis year)



de College celeb(our 2005 MBBS batch...)
dis one was taken from last year's bash...




de ATHAPOOKKALAM!!!
(snapshot of de one de luvly docs of our batch prepared..
credits...yuppp go 2 de gals...v wer busy takin snaps of ourselves...!!!wearin MUNDUS!!!)

n yupp!!! forgot meet dis guy tooo:

Mahabali...!!!

another member of de SINGLE MEGA PACK COMMUNITY...
4 more details...click dis link


ahem ahem...kappa plus... ;-)
de side dish n booster...!!!


Sunday, September 7, 2008

de HALL of FAME (k.ø.c.h.ü z awards)!!! '08





(dis time wen i say it's unedited i really mean it...was chattin wid prasanth half de time i was typing this...so dont turn red)(and another thing to note: this is all about de blogosphere...nothin more...subjected 2 deletion!!!)

Hooo...seems it's rainin awards...!!! so sad i missed all de live action...was kinda busy....well folks here "I AM BAAK"...(actually wanted 2 type in: HERO'Z BAAK...but my new buddy Prasanth wants it dis way...!!!).

I rarely prefer posting "lively"stuffs in my blog though i often fill my page with "smoke" n brand things dat i write AS "almost fiction".

But this time I have to...

wen things r offered 'free' how can i resist accepting them...okay world...


I am now....'de proud recipient of de prestigious BFF award'...trillions of thanks n hugs 2 Hemanth!!!!!!

de HEMANTH factor:

N few words about dis guy: Hemanth:Dis is one rare kind of species...found in de outskirts of Andhra Pradesh...Honestly speaking I luv just de ones who r special...special enough to live a life different from others...n dis guy is one such spl dude...!!!

1)He shocked me, posting his pics 4 us 2 comment...dat was de first of it's kind...made me think of de guy atleast thrice...coool...i ended up tellin dat..'cool'

2)he penned sumthin on himself : "na ME"
dat was again sumthin extremely new...!!!

Thus Hemu is de new dude in ma 'hall of fame' ;-) luv ye mate...!!! I also hav (had) a post exclusve 4 him...my world n i rule

Now de next: Though officially not yet notified(grrr) it seems(not sure!!!) i've been awarded this:





de PRIYA factor

No way...she's already clogged ma mind...gosshh...chk her out yerself...here's de link.
Im still 'exploring her'...!!! more complicated dan de story line of Matrix (de first movie)

currently all i know is: she's is just wonderful...!!! And is extremely dear to me...!!! (e-pal as she calls me he he). ShE made me write sumthin too: proud 2 b watt.

n de last but not the least in any sense,
the award that made my year: being branded de 'favourite blogger'
by Smriti Srivastava

de SMRITI factor:

If i need to scribe what this gal is...i'll have to type in pages...gosh...no way...!!!

just this: She's de FIRST wonderful Human i met, here in this blogosphere...Well folks de gal is really important!!!! Tops in my commentator list...de one most 'inpiring factor' i have in blogosphere...!!! Here's a link 2 one of my all time favourites from her posts:beyond borders.


HER 'ABOUT ME' SECTION: smriti,Remembrance. My Grandma named me so for a reason. So,if I can leave my imprints in your heart before I can depart, I will consider my job here done for this lifetime. Cheers!!:)

Well dear, smriti, you've already left yer imprint in my heart (grrr..don't depart niway).

de HALL of FAME

Now: Others from "ma hall of fame"

Diva: Miss.Hug, as i call her...i've had de "longest chaaaat sessions" wid dis gal...(ask her y im saying dat...he he...!!! no no..im always fast in typing). She's one original pal i won through blogger. luv ye a lot mate....!!!

Sameera:Always one of de first to chk out ma blog de moment it gets updated. a PROLIFIC writer

Saran: "Nihilist..Anarchist..Agnostic..Pessimist...Misanthrope."...dis guy inspired me ( without himself knowin de danger he was lightin up...!!!) to start this blog. Ma 'senior' from college

Amooma: WOOW WOOW...i donno if i mentioned about her b4...de legendary blogger...hav been 'desperately' carryin her 4 more dan a minimum of 6 years( hey amooma..more than 6? yupp). One of me finest friends. She placed de first scrap in ma orkut scrapbook...!!!

Neha: De first thing she did was 2 add de new term 'joiedevivre' 2 ma vocabulary...!!! She owns a real cool n "mind tumblin" blog.

Pooja: a fine Poetess 'immersed in de realm of luv' . I am always one of de first to comment on her works!!! lucky nithin...!!!

Saranya:de Doc from abroad...!!! One of my top commentators!!!

Aquagurl: he he...n after supergirl,batwoman...i found out dis wonderful mate!!!

new addons: Dese r people i met recently, still 2 explored(yupp)- Anoop, Cinderella,Divya,Arun.

WINDING UP FOR NOW...IM TIRED..JUST RETURNED HOME 4 MA HOLIDAYS...!!! SO WORLD BWARE I HAVE NOTHIN ELSE TO DO 4 A WEEK...HI HI..EXPECT DE UNEXPECTED...

N ONE MORE THING...LOZZ OF TAGS ARE PENDING...PLS DONT TURN RED@ME...WILL REPLY...SOME DAY..!!! ;-)


(GIFTED MY HEMU...!!!)

DARK LORD NITHIN!!! "SMILE IN DE DARK"