The Uncertainty Principle: Gratitude

The days leading up to the my father's surgery had been quite an experience. My father's reconciliation with the modern medicine as he goes under the knife. Perfect strangers and friends who are seldom in touch coming forward to help in my hour of need. The stoic doctors. The operation theater- families confronting the fact of death. The hospital Sri Ramachandra Medical College. In all this as all ways finding what being human means.

The procedure to be performed was Aortic-Valve-Replacement. Thats the prognosis. The diagnosis is stenosis due to calcification of the Aorta that led to his high blood pressure for over a decade. For my father's generation going to a hospital is in itself a dread and a surgery is quite beyond all comprehension. To top that the active lifestyle that he led with daily walks adds on the idea that one is impervious to any affliction. But as with any beliefs this to was on tenuous grounds and it did not hold. He had to face his fears- depending on someone else. When the going is good we keep to ourselves and do things on our own terms and not be bothered about someone else, self reliance is what we say. Self. The "image" about ourselves, how much water does it hold? We may never know, not until the image is shattered and then we do what we dread in my father's case depending on someone else, not being self reliant, we face the fears. But then life is funny you yield and every thing takes care of itself or rather, not risking getting misinterpreted or representing any belief, we come to terms with what FACT is and with the truth, studied, life seems to find a way.

The initial admission procedures went well-admission on 19th March, angio-gram on the 21st, and the operation on the 22nd. Then the problem- the hospital blood bank was out of A1+ve, this was because of a case of liver transplant that consumed 30 units of the Blood Banks' supply. Another problem- I was told about this on the 21st afternoon. One more Problem- my O+ve won't do. The Blood Bank had no A1+ve stock to trade with my O+ve. The first thing when a person is confronting a really serious problem and if the person is really serious, is that the brain becomes incredibly focussed. It actually stops thinking and ACTs. I and Rini get to act calling to Simu, my Tai Chi Administrator, Suresh an old friend, Shashi Kumar a BTech student from IIT Madras who moderates blood donation activities in the campus, Kanchan ex-cleegue of Rini, Helen current colleague of Rini, http://www.friendstosupport.org/index.aspx providing a comprehensive donors list, and my very good friend Desingh. My and my wife's phone was busy and phone call after phone call from the seeming impossibility of arranging blood, given the summer and the exams of students all over, in short notice slowly but surely kind gentlemen extend their hand to help. With the operation time slot postponed to the second slot (11 AM, first slot at 7AM) we found the 5 volunteers who would make it on 22nd early morning to donate A1+ve blood.

Myself and Rini, we thank Simu (Mrs Viji Thomas), Suresh, Senthil, Shashi Kumar and Kamal (2nd year, ECE, Anna University), Nasser, Kanchan, Helen to have helped us through the crisis.

Above all we thank the donors Mr Sravan Kumar (BTech, Mechanical 3rd Year, IIT Madras), Sreenidhi (MS, Electrical Engg, IIT Madras), Mr. Mahendran, Mr. Raghavendra (L&T Infotech), and Arun (2nd Year, ECE, Anna University).

We missed the deadline and the operation got postponed for the day but it was a relief that we had the requisite units of blood for the procedure to move ahead. I don't have the words to express the gratefulness I feel inside for these fine and exemplary ladies and gentleman. All I would say THANK YOU. I could now be relaxed to down the food through my alimentary.

Who is a friend and who is a stranger? The experience makes me question. The following gentlemen I have never met before are they stranger to me now? I guess not.

Senthil