Page 110 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

Choki stopped pushing. “I can’t do it. Let me die.”
“Oh, no!” said the nurse. “The baby is choking!”
Abi shook her hard. “Push, Choki!”
The last few hours were weaves of unrelenting misery for her. Her entire body trembled as she gave a
long push. “Aaahhh!”
The baby gave a long shrill cry. “Waah!”
“Look,” said the nurse, smiling. “It’s a healthy baby boy.”
Tears brimmed my eyes as the baby kicked his limbs. “Thank you.”
The nurse cut the umbilical cord, hung him upside down, delivered a few pats on his back, and took
him to the other room.
“Where are you taking him, nurse,” I said.
“For suction,” she said. “Don’t worry.”
“Fine,” I said, embracing Choki. “I love you.”
As she sobbed, tucking me to her bosom, I pecked on all over her face.
The nurse returned with the baby and said, “Wrap the baby in a warm blanket.”
Abi wrapped him. A ward boy shifted her to the general ward at the end of the block.
At night, the nurse said, “Feed the baby on colostrum. It supplements all the nutrients a baby needs.”
“Oh, I see,” I said. “Feed him, Ama.”
Choki fed but the baby cried. “What’s the matter with him? He didn’t take a drop till now,” she said.
An old man, a young girl’s attendant, next to Choki, said, “Some babies don’t take milk for weeks. That
should be normal with your baby.”
“Really?” I said, turning to Choki. “You heard it? Don’t worry.”
In the afternoon the next day, the nurse said, “You can take the baby home now.”
“But he didn’t take milk, nurse,” I said.
“He looks fine,” she said. “Bring him back if he doesn’t take milk at home.”
Back home, the baby groaned the entire day.
I rocked him around. “Gosh, what could be wrong with you, dear?” I tucked up his shirt and looked at
his stomach. “Abdomen distended? What’s here? Oh, no! Nerves are proliferated over his belly.”
“What’s the matter?” said Choki.
“Look here,” I said, pointing at the tummy. “His abdomen is distended.”
“It’s nothing,” she said. “He is plump.”
“No, look at the veins. I think I should show him to the nurse.”
“Should I go with you?”
“I can manage. You may rest.”
The other nurse had shifted in for evening duty. I showed her the baby.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “That’s because the baby is chubby.”
“But he cried all day, nurse,” I said. “I think something is wrong with him.”
“The baby looks fine. Bring him back if he keeps crying.”
The next morning, a shaman exorcised him, but the baby didn’t stop crying. So, I took him to the BHU
again in the evening.
“He is groaning harder now,” I said.
The nurse checked on him and said, “I think we should refer the baby to Samdrup Jongkhar Referral
Hospital.”
I sighed. “Oh, no!”
She filled up the referral form and said, “Get ready to take the baby, please.”
Choki wobbled after us on her mom’s support. “What’s the matter?”
“She is referring the baby to Samdrup Jongkhar Referral Hospital,” I said. “We must get ready.”
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