More than 5 years ago, during a week day at my office, around 2 PM in the afternoon, I received a call from my wife saying that her brother-in-law, husband of her only sister, based at Kolkata, had suffered a major brain-stroke and been hospitalized in a critical condition.
She also said that he, being a central government employee, had been shifted to an empanelled hospital and the doctors were carrying our detailed investigations.
Well, within a few hours of our discussion, I, along with wife and both the girls, was airborne -- heading for Kolkata.
Immediately after landing at Kolkata airport at around 9 PM in the night, we straightway headed for the hospital and reached there by 10 PM.
There we met his daughter along with a few neighbors. They said, he was in ICU. Despite, trying our best, we could not meet him since the visiting hours was over long ago.
After an hour of futile attempts, all of us headed for home with our mind full of anxieties. During our journey back home, I kept on digging out the details of what had happened and how -- from his daughter.
Next course of events, spanning over a period of close to a month, was an unforgettable experience of learning to handle a life crisis situation that I would like share with you.
Early morning, the next day, all of us went to the hospital and, one by one, met him in ICU. Looking at him, I could clearly make out that he needed the best treatments available in Kolkata and this hospital, obviously, was not the right place for him.
However, none of his family members were decisive about shifting him to a another hospital, neither any of his colleagues were keen to do so, may be in view of cash-less facility available here -- apart from the risk involved in transporting him in such condition.
I don't know why, but there was a bell ringing inside me, warning me that if he didn't get a better treatment he might collapse.
During the next couple of hours, I went through a daunting task of convincing his family members, neighbors and colleagues for allowing me to shift him to "Woodland," one of the best hospitals in Kolkata.
When they finally agreed, from nowhere appeared another resistance: doctors of this hospital told me, since they felt that the patient was not in a condition to be shifted to another hospital, for getting discharge approval from this hospital I would have to sign a bond taking the full responsibility of any untoward incident happening there-after!
At that point, my wife asked me, if I was confident about the step I had decided to take against the wishes of everyone.
Well, I said yes, and then shifted him to "Woodland."
Later we came to know: had he been there, in that hospital, it would have difficult for him to survive as it had neither the specialists nor the facilities required for treating such life-threatening medical problem.
I remained there, in Kolkata, for a month, along with my family members, attending to him in hospital and discussing about the problem with his doctors, reading and collecting relevant information from various health-care sites on the internet and sharing them with specialists -- all the time ensuring that he was getting the best possible treatment.
A month after we came back to Delhi, he partially recovered and returned home.
By undergoing a rigorous physiotherapy for close to a year and half since then, while demonstrating unbelievable will power, he almost recovered and now leading a normal life.
When, recently, his daughter casually mentioned in a gathering that it was me who saved her father -- tears came to my eyes, as I had never thought about such interpretation of that incident.
However, I must admit, that, she must be an angel, who could rise above the limits of reality and openly express her thoughts. May God bless her!
Well, in that process, I did learn a few important life-lesson and they are:
1. If we are confident and convinced about a course of action, particularly in a crisis situation, we must go ahead with that decision -- even if it requires overcoming the "Mother of All Barriers."
2. Success is always shadowed by an element of risk; less fearful we are, more successful we would be.
3. Taking action in time, is more important than the action itself.
Have you ever gone through a similar situation in life? If so, please share your experience and the learning.
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