Heartless help..!
Robert Clements
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 - Even as I read about Ram Kotekar, a labourer, whose wife was hit by a speeding car in Mumbai, running with his seriously injured, severely bleeding wife from fancy hospital to municipal hospital to government hospital and finally to crematorium, and imagine starched matrons in sterilized uniforms shooing him out of spotlessly clean casualty rooms, “Blood! Blood! Don’t dirty our clean room! Patients won’t enter now! How will we make a profit today?”
And with seriously injured, severely bleeding wife, now anxious, distraught and worried as he feels weak pulse he runs to next hospital, where same starched matrons in sterilized uniform shoo him away, “Not here, not here, our machines don’t work!” And finally he runs with same wife in his arms, home to prepare her lifeless body for the funeral which should not have happened.
Over and over again I see this same scene happening, different characters, different places, but same results; places meant for healing, trusts built to help the poor, turning away the same for which their founders built them for.A few months back I took an alcoholic, with his wife in my car to a rehab centre where I’d heard they took such in, kept them, and then when they had recovered fully allowed them to join society again. “He will normal again!” I assured the hopeful wife as she looked at her husband lying in the back seat of my vehicle.
“Sorry sir,” said the man at the counter, “W close at five!” “But it’s five!” I shouted. “It’s five minutes past five sir!” said the man at the counter. “Come tomorrow sir!” How was I to tell him, that it had taken hours of persuasion before the man suffering from alcoholism had agreed to go in for rehab? That I had talked to him about going in to the centre hundreds of times before, and he had not agreed: Now how could I take him, back?
“Sir, please leave, it’s closing time!” Yes it’s closing time for all these hospitals, NGOs and institutions who started their trusts with zeal and vision, but somehow along the way, the people they employed lack that compassion and empathy for which the trust, hospital or NGO was begun.
Supervise them, teach them, employ only those who join out of a calling to serve the needy and not those who just want a job. I see Ram Kotekar again, standing outside that hospital, returning from the funeral of his wife, he enters the door. “What do you want?” “I want to wipe away the blood she spilled in your room!” he sobs and starched matron in sterilized uniform gestures to security to take him away.
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
And with seriously injured, severely bleeding wife, now anxious, distraught and worried as he feels weak pulse he runs to next hospital, where same starched matrons in sterilized uniform shoo him away, “Not here, not here, our machines don’t work!” And finally he runs with same wife in his arms, home to prepare her lifeless body for the funeral which should not have happened.
Over and over again I see this same scene happening, different characters, different places, but same results; places meant for healing, trusts built to help the poor, turning away the same for which their founders built them for.A few months back I took an alcoholic, with his wife in my car to a rehab centre where I’d heard they took such in, kept them, and then when they had recovered fully allowed them to join society again. “He will normal again!” I assured the hopeful wife as she looked at her husband lying in the back seat of my vehicle.
“Sorry sir,” said the man at the counter, “W close at five!” “But it’s five!” I shouted. “It’s five minutes past five sir!” said the man at the counter. “Come tomorrow sir!” How was I to tell him, that it had taken hours of persuasion before the man suffering from alcoholism had agreed to go in for rehab? That I had talked to him about going in to the centre hundreds of times before, and he had not agreed: Now how could I take him, back?
“Sir, please leave, it’s closing time!” Yes it’s closing time for all these hospitals, NGOs and institutions who started their trusts with zeal and vision, but somehow along the way, the people they employed lack that compassion and empathy for which the trust, hospital or NGO was begun.
Supervise them, teach them, employ only those who join out of a calling to serve the needy and not those who just want a job. I see Ram Kotekar again, standing outside that hospital, returning from the funeral of his wife, he enters the door. “What do you want?” “I want to wipe away the blood she spilled in your room!” he sobs and starched matron in sterilized uniform gestures to security to take him away.
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
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