Page 169 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

“Nurse, the baby has a high fever,” I said. “You should inform the surgeon.”
Right away, she went to the duty room to phone Dr. John. And when she returned, she said, “Dr. Jacob
said to sponge the baby. Get the bowl from the store.”
I brought a steel bowl and sponged the baby. The fever subsided at 3:00 am.
At 9:00 am, the next morning, Dr. Jacob and his team came and checked on Rinchen’s progress, and
said everything was fine.
Late at night, Choki and I conversed with the innocent-looking mother of a baby girl, next to Rinchen.
“How old is your baby?” asked Choki.
She held her tiny dark baby in her arms and tickled her cheeks. “Seven months.”
“What happened to the baby?” asked Choki.
“Operation,” she said and showed the stitches.
The stoma was closed, and the stitches had dried up.
Minutes later, the baby cried. She filled up the baby’s milk bottle with raw milk.
“Hold on,” I said. “You should boil the milk and dilute it.”
She grinned faintly. “We feed our babies this way.”
The baby groaned, and one hour later, the poor baby stopped breathing.
“Oh, my baby!” cried the mother and stroked the baby’s head. “Somebody, help my baby. Doctor.”
The on-duty doctor listened to the baby’s breathing. He gave a few gentle pats on the baby’s back but
the baby didn’t breathe. He then performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Seconds later, he declared the
baby dead.
The poor mother dropped to her knees and sobbed her heart out. Nobody consoled her. She wrapped
the body of her lifeless baby in a blanket and trudged out of the ward at the darkest hour of the night. The
worst of all was nobody came to pick her up. My heart cried for her great loss.
Days later, Rinchen was shifted back to the cabin on my request. I loved the tranquility of the cabin.
No guffaws of women and no deafening cries of the babies. There was even a 17-inch Samsung Hiltron
TV on the rack above the foot of the bed.
Rinchen hadn’t taken a drop of water for over ten days. Dr. Jacob and Sampath Karl came with their
team every day. Seeing the improvement in our baby made me happy.
But starting from 4:00 pm a week later, Rinchen ran on mild fever. His temperature augmented by 9:00
pm.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “Everything was fine with him this morning.”
“Go call the nurse,” said Choki.
The nurse examined and took his temperature. “Don’t worry, the fever will subside,” he said.
But fever won’t subside. Only one attendant was allowed in the cabin. So, I stayed back at the entrance,
outside the ward, reading the baby’s horoscope. I called Choki every half an hour. She said his fever
remained the same. At 3:00 am, I called her again.
“He is asleep. The nurse gave him paracetamol.”
My heart returned to its normal beatings, but the stress drained all my strength and my head felt heavy.
So, I spread my shawl on the cement and went to sleep.
The next couple of days, Rinchen choked on a terrible cough.
“He can’t even cough,” I said. “What should we do?”
“Remember what Dr. John told us?” said Choki. “We must massage his back.”
“Oh, yes!” I turned Rinchen to the side and massaged his back. “Hell no! Look here. What is this?” I
showed her the stitches that had ruptured the skin around the anal passage. The wound was too deep for
any baby to endure. “Poor boy.”
Choki leaned closer to the baby’s bum. “Goodness me!”
When the nurse came to replace saline, I showed the wound to her. “Nurse, see this.”
169