The Escape

The Escape

             Pashu Chauhan came to the Emergency at the stroke of midnight on 3^rd December with agonizing pain in his abdomen. He had a huge swelling there because too much of alcohol had damaged his pancreas. A diagnosis of pancreatic pseudo-cyst was made and he was admitted into the surgical ward.

His craving for alcohol persisted and he would both behave crazy for the lust of it and from time to time, squeal in pain in his bed beside his perpetually suffering wife, struggling with her sobs. The lyrics of a song, “I will give you reasons to continue; while you lie writhing on the floor…I am demon alcohol” could be fancied in his eyes!

Two weeks later, he was part of the MBBS final practical examination. His was a condition with ‘nice findings’ and he was perhaps the most difficult among the many ‘long cases’. Students were required to correctly diagnose and answer intelligently to questions about his disease.

Chauhan had to endure the replays of rigmarole of examination by two students every day for five days, which included queries about his complaints, censuring interrogation about his drinking habits, seemingly senseless and embarrassing inquiries about his income, daily meals, the structure of his house and his cursed poverty. Those were followed by a head-to-toe scrutiny and a repeated and much dreaded poking of his acute abdomen. During the course of such a one hour ordeal, he would have to gather strength to assume a knee-elbow position and also roll to the right and the left as wished by the student percussing on his torso. The most detested part were the ‘per rectal examinations’. His irritation was aggravated more and more with every repetition. He felt bugged to the supreme point of exasperation so that by the time Rov was in the wards at 9 AM on 19^th December, Chauhan had already fled.

The sad part of it all was that Chauhan left without the knowledge that Rov and his colleagues had made free the investigations for his disease and would have provided all the materials for the surgery of his condition. He was also perhaps unaware that practical examinations were over the very day he left.