Hospital

A Relative of mine was admitted to a Hospital. I heard he had tore a ligament in his leg while he was playing football. He was not a professional athlete but a tense game between friends can bring about undesirable results. Some of the results are not reflected on the scorecard, rather they are reflected on the body of the player.

After I heard this, I decided to give him a visit. A hospital visit is never pleasant. But sometimes you have no choice. He was admitted on the fourth floor. I entered this General ward. There were several patients. 7 of them to be exact. 5 of them to my left side. And 2 of them on the right side. After I opened the door to the general ward, immediately to my left side, I saw a boy, maybe of the same age as of mine. He was dry to the bone. He feet were thin as his arms. His whole body was like a skeleton covered with some skin. His face was hollow. His eyes had come out, bulging out of his skull. He was in short in a dire strait of condition. His body was a loud evidence of his suffering. He was lying down in a position of a baby in a womb. He needed protection. The instant I saw him, I felt a surge of emotion bursting out. All kind of tubes entering his body from his nose and mouth did not make a good sight either.

I felt a certain kind of sadness I had not felt in a long time. It was a sight never to be erased from a memory. A lady was standing in front of him. I was sure this was the poor boy’s mother. Her eyes were moist. She was staring at the boy. The boy was not conscious. I felt the sadness in her. Maybe it was her only son. I did not know what had happened to the poor boy, and why he deserved such a fate.

I went and talked to my relative and while leaving, I glanced at the sight again. I saw the lady again. The more I saw of her, the more I was confirmed that It was the poor boy’s mother. She looked at me. Her eyes were having a hollow look. Her eyes were shimmering in the light with the moistness of a new born tear. However the face showed a silent resoluteness of not letting the tear grow. She continued to look at me. I wondered what she might be thinking. Maybe she looked at her own son in me.

While I was in the lift descending down, I asked the liftsman about the patient in the general ward 1^st left on the fourth floor. Upon enquiring he said that was a case of a bike accident. He had an accident four months back. Had a cranial injury. Then he got some fever and infection in his brain due to the accident. And that has left him in such a pitiful condition. I prayed a silent prayer to god. I prayed that nobody should get an illness like this.

When I walked out of the hospital, I walked out a more compassionate person. I had realized how balanced a life is on a knife’s edge. I knew life was resilient, but I realized it was the suffering that a life endures that makes it as resilient as it should be.