SAY NO TO CONSANGUINITY!!

July 1, 2013. Monday

This is my first day in pediatrics in 4^th semester. Today I met a mom who is struggling for her twin daughters’ life.
This 28 yr old woman, from Guntur had a consanguineous marriage. Her husband is a government teacher. She had a twin pregnancy and gave birth to 2 premature female babies at 29 weeks. The babies were in intensive care unit for about 2 months.

            

Now, the children are about 2 yrs. But unfortunately, they are congenitally deaf and dumb {because of malformations in inner ear}. They are suffering from CIPA {congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis}. As they are insensitive they used to bite their tongue and bleed a lot. They landed up in anemia. They don’t sweat. They don’t shed tears. They can’t stand. They can’t walk. They can’t do any activities on their own. They had repeated lung and urinary tract infections. 

Knowing that his children are crippled, their educated father abandoned them. She fought against her husband for her children’s life; she left him and came in search for a better treatment to Hyderabad.

            

As the children are suffering from Genetical disease, there is no treatment for them. The cause for their suffering is their parent’s consanguineous marriage.

             

Parents get attached to their children through dreams, fantasies, illusions, and projections into the future. Children are their second chance, their ultimate "life products” the reflection and extension of their very being. By bringing a child into the world, if they have a short life expectancy and will have to endure great physical pain and cannot be helped, the suffering of those parents will be so unbearable.

            

Facing the devastating and continuing loss of having an impaired child, many parents are dropping their disabled children and some have even ran away from their marriages because of this.

           
 I believe that prevention of such incidences is better than having to deal with them. The only way to prevent this is to make people know about consanguineous marriages. Awareness is one of the major weapons that will help in this field.

            

The most appropriate and convenient time to instill the importance of preventing close marriages is the adolescent period and therefore it will be useful for every school to be alive to this problem and take the necessary steps to advise them. Parents must be advised of the dangers of close associations of their children with the children of their brothers and sisters during their adolescence.

           

The need to forge a close and friendly relationship and rapport with one's children at this stage and giving them the right advice will play a crucial role in the reduction of the frequency of such close marriages.

            

By decreasing the proportion of consanguineous marriages in the society, the amount of suffering would decrease. We, as an Indian citizen need to stress upon the individual awareness. {Hope everyone who reads this, will support me in making people aware}.

My second year!!

Finally, after 16 months my MBBS second year is at the end. {Oct 2011- Jan 2013}

In this 16 months time changed a lot and life kept on moving without a pause… new people came… some went off… some really low moments… some extremely high… anyhow life was so beautiful in its own way!! 

 I was attached to many…. And worked and enjoyed with everybody I came across…. I discovered a different me…. More altruistic, good and self abnegating me…

I met many who contributed to my life in one or the other way…. I was encouraged, appreciated, criticized and discouraged time to time…. But it always added towards my learning and helped me to learn and become better with every step…

Starting with surgery postings in October, I still remember the day when I wore my OT dress for the first time the amusement I felt was ever lasting. The long standing lectures in the wards, the flirts with the P.Gs, denounces from the professors, the emotional bondage with the patients everything was eternal.

Our successful strike for the referred in November is our greatest triumph in second year. During OBG postings in March, every day was amazing. The enthusiasm to hear a fetal heart sound, the startling moment when I saw a moving fetus in the ultrasound scan, the goose bumps I got on seeing a natural delivery for the first time, the exhilaration on holding a newly born baby who is yet to open his eyes, the a lovely conflict with a housiee in the labor room, the exceedingly large birth register… hmm… every moment was most memorable. 

The next 4 months of Medicine Postings in unit 2 were outstanding. The Tom & Jerry fights with my unit mates, beautiful clinical experiences, some parkinsonian faces, some angry birds, the numerous case studies we discussed… all these engrossed me towards this defective physiology. 

The buzz of EEGA in July, the Fresher’s in August made us even closer. 

 

September is the month of ecstasy. During the college fest, every day was splendid. Our wonderful volley ball match, the hilarious hairstyling, our victory over seniors in dance and cricket, the buffoonery ball badminton, the wondrous love letter writing, the striking singing by our singers… the whole were fantastic.

Coming to Pulse, it is a pile of memories!! The fortnight I spent with my friends created bonds which often last forever.

In October, I was being jerked to and fro by some gigantic events; I was caught in an emotional clutter & had a series of changes in my life. I was pissed off with such an enigmatic life. Finally, I learnt that life is a string of hits and misses, hard moments are necessary to make us perfect and we have to choose a path of individual responsibility and maturity rather than letting grief take a different course. 

In the last three months, we are engaged with exams. Everyone was busy cramming… night outs, residing in reading rooms, discussions, altercations; hmm… time went off very slow and sluggish.

To conclude, my second year is remarkable. I thank everyone who made my journey such a beautiful one and I hope that it would be the same in our clinicals too.

.

My clinical experience 2

     

 Friday12, October 2012

Government chest hospital, Erragadda:-

Today our pulmonology P.G told us to take a case of a woman named Mangali, a patient with Spindle Cell Sarcoma.

This is the first time I saw an SCS case. Mangali who is about 50 yrs old is from Nalgonda District. She is pale, cachexic, with scaled skin, prominent dark circles around eyes, with no hair on her scalp & looked intensely depressed. 

About a year ago, she had a mass growing at her left ankle, which was then excised & diagnosed as SCS. Since then she is on chemotherapy in MMJ cancer hospital. Slowly, the Sarcoma metastasized to her left lung in such an extent that it is untreatable.Then she was informed that she couldn’t be treated anymore and was discharged.

With a faint hope that she would be back to normal, she came in search of chest hospital. As her illness is out of control, no one could help her here also. She was explained the same that she would not survive for more than 2 months.

She cried so badly when she came to know that her life would end in a short span. She and her husband were gazing at us and our professors with tears rolling down their eyes. With grief and sorrow, blaming the Almighty for their fate, the couple left the wards.

This incident had a great emotional impact on me. With great difficult I could control my grief. I learnt how valuable our life is… how fortunate we are, than many others who were caught in clutches of dreadful diseases.

Hmm… from that day, whenever I encounter patients with malignancies in my postings, Mangali’s innocent face will strike in my mind!! I don’t know whether she is alive now or not!!  (9th December, 2012)

My clinical experience in GANDHI

Tuesday27, March, 2012

        Today I had one of my most memorable outpatient {OP} postings in medicine. Our Associate professor Dr. Shyam Sundhar Raju guided us today.

        A patient named Shashank, 19 year old guy came with chronic diarrhea, tremor and anorexia. I was shocked to know that he came to hospital from charlapally jail with a jailer. Another dreadful fact about him is that he is HCV +.

        We were just startled seeing him. What is his age? Why is he in jail? How did he get HCV?

        Finally we got to know about him. He was arrested in Telangana agitation issue. A case was filed against him for beating police. Many others were arrested along with him but unfortunately he was alone trapped.

        His father was an advocate. His mother expired. His father was not at all bothered about him. He didn’t even have any interest in releasing him on bail.

        This guy spoiled his total career. His education is discontinued (he was studying engineering). There is no hope that he would be freed from jail.

        Finally, his disease is Alcoholic withdrawal Syndrome. Hmm… he is chronic alcoholic. Due to sudden cease in intake he developed withdrawal syndrome. HCV is due to some improper blood transfusion he had somewhere else.

        Oh my god!! What is this?? Who is responsible for all this?? His father, who is negligent in his duties to bring up a child?? Or the idiotic political parties who drag youth into regional issues for their own benefit?? Hmm…….

        Whatever might be the cause, ultimately youth life is greatly affected. I don’t know how many Shashank’s are there in our society?? But, I’m very sad about it.

        A child’s behavior, his deeds depends mostly upon parents & his surrounding society. Proper guidance of parents & student’s perfect vision on their career and future are the only ways to prevent life like that of Shashank.