It was a busy Monday evening at my clinic. I was seeing a patient in my cabin. In the middle of the consultation, my receptionist, Tamil comes inside and asked me for Rs 100, as some patient needed money to pay for the auto fare. Apparently the family did not have the required money with them. I was amused at this strange request but did not give much thought to it as I was busy with another patient. I took out my wallet and handed over 100 rupee note to Tamil.
After finishing the consultation, a mother carrying his 2 yr old son Abhijat in her arm entered my room. Abhijat was drowsy. Mother was in a state of panic. I quickly took the baby from her arms and ask her to take a seat. She told me that Abhijat had fever for the past 2 days, and all of a sudden had a convulsions [ fits ] 30 min back. She did not know what to do as her husband was still at work. She just took her child in his arm and rushed to my clinic in an auto.
I examined the child and concluded that child had got convulsions because of high fever, and it was not something serious. Abhijat was drowsy but was recovering. I explained to the mother about the child’s condition and reassured her, and gave her a prescription. I could see that the mother was now recovering from her initial panic.
As she was leaving my cabin, she made an unusual request. She wanted me to loan her 1000 rupees to purchase medicines and take a cab back home! In her panic-stricken state, she had rushed to reach my clinic, and had forgotten her purse at home. She further added that she was the same patient for whom my receptionist had asked for Rs 100 earlier.
I handed Rs 1000 to her. After she left I was thinking that how much she believed in me, and how sure she was, that I would see her child and would also sponsor her whole trip to my clinic!! Some patients do expect so much from a doctor 🙂
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