Page 182 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

I drove after him down the road in the wafting dust. He stopped in front of a Bhutanese traditional
building and rolled down the window glass. “This is the hospital.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I rushed upstairs to inform the on-duty doctor. A young nurse was warming herself by the room heater.
“Excuse me, nurse,” I said. “I got a patient, please. A COPD patient.”
“Bring him,” she said.
“Can I take a wheelchair?”
“Ask the ward boy in the next room.”
The ward boy was busy fixing the regulator on the oxygen cylinder.
“Can I use that wheelchair, please?” I asked.
“Please take it,” he said.
Karma and I wheeled up Dad along the steep ramp. “Here, nurse. Very serious.”
Straightaway, she took Dad to the bed and clipped his fingertip with the Pulse Oximeter. “Brought
from where?”
“Mongar Referral Hospital,” I said. “We are taking him to Thimphu.”
“The heart rate is high,” she said. “There is a cardiologist at Mongar hospital, why did you bring him?”
“I am sorry. I didn’t expect this would happen.”
“Tell me if the problem persists.”
“We would.”
But the nerve on Dad’s neck thrust.
“Look at the nerve on his neck,” I said. “It’s thumping a lot. I don’t think he would survive the night.
We must be prepared.”
Karma shook his head. “Should I call the nurse?”
But Dad opened his eyes. “Go to sleep. I am fine,” he said.
Karma curled up on the bed beside the door. I stood at the foot of Dad’s bed, apprehensive of his
abnormal heart thumps.
Dad opened his eyes and said, “Go to sleep, Ata. I am fine.”
So, I sat on the stool and watched him, rubbing my arms. At 3:30 am, I tiptoed to Karma’s bed and
nudged on his shoulder.
“Ssh! Listen to me,” I whispered. “I think we have a problem. Road-widening work would be in full
swing from here. Roadblocks would delay us, what should we do?”
“Dangpa Losar is celebrated for three days,” he said as confidence lingered in his eyes. “They should
take a break. So, I don’t think there’d be roadblocks.”
I rubbed my arms. “Let’s pray for it.”
At dawn, I woke Karma. “We would better hurry. Go ask the ward boy to supplant the oxygen
cylinder.”
The ward boy came with a cylinder and attached the regulator on it. “Don’t forget to supplant the
cylinder at Trongsa hospital,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said, taking a deep breath. ‘I hope the road is clear.”
There was no roadblock, but Yontongla pass was covered in snow. The car skidded even at the speed
of 15 km/h. We arrived at Trongsa at 8:00 am. Straightaway, we went to the hospital to supplant the
cylinder. We had lunch at Nobding and drove straight to Bajo hospital. Right after supplanting the
cylinder, we headed for Thimphu.
At the T-junction at Simtokha, Dad turned to me and said, “Are we going home?”
“Dad, we’ll go home after seeing the doctor,” I said.
He shook his head. “I am sick of hospital life. They would hospitalize me.”
“For your own good, Dad. Karma would be with you.”
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