Closer to the Kindred Spirit

For the past two years, we had been seriously contemplating about kidney transplant for one of our brothers, who lost both his kidneys, and now is on dialysis twice a week. He was in the South, hoping to get a kidney transplant, but when everything was ready, and his papers went to the medical council of the district, a customary procedure in any state, his application was rejected. Therefore he had to be brought to our place, and we had been contemplating what we could do, keeping in mind our moral, legal and ethical standards, without impinging on the law of the land. But we have realized that it is not easy to do this.

We were lucky to have several medical practitioners to give us ideas about what we could do; in fact having so many doctors to advise and propose to us, has been one of the drawbacks of the entire process, which had been getting delayed, when we wished to explore every avenue that different doctors proposed to us. Requesting a kidney donation from a non-relative donor had been a shady area which we wanted to avoid from the beginning; but looking at the situation of our companion needing a kidney, we have no other option than to explore other ways of getting a kidney for him from the non-relative category, and he has a lady, wife of his brother’s friend, who is ready to donate one of her kidneys.

What we do not wish to do is : endanger the life of a person, in order to save the life of one of our companions. Medical practitioners have said that a healthy person can easily donate one of his/her kidneys, and generally the lone kidney would start functioning for the two, and there should not be any problem. But what if later in life, the person experiences problem with the kidney? That is a remote possibility, but we cannot brush it aside altogether. We were also wondering, if one of our companions not donate a kidney for this ailing companion! That would be more in keeping with the fellowship we share in common, but would that take shape?

I could see that the companion who is in dire need of a kidney is frantically looking forward to a transplant, so that he could drink water normally, and work and keep himself as a normal person would. Sometimes he talks to me in such pathetic voice that I cannot be indifferent to him. At the same time, this is not an issue which can be plunged into without calculating the risk factors, the repercussions, because here it is not an individual who is involved, but an institution. We are required to tread slowly and steadily, so that we do not do anything which may jeopardize our work and mission. But not everyone would look at this angle.

Moral and ethical issues cannot be left out, while considering a non-relative donor; the law of the land had been made stringent, so that a poor person is not led to sell his/her organs for money, though such things happen throughout the country. Our companion did admit that in the South, it was such a case, where an agent was given Rupees two lacs, hoping that his candidate’s kidney would fit, and he would get another two lacs at the end of the transplant. I was told that the donor would get a minimum amount. Whether we like it or not, organ donation is a lucrative business, where innocent poor are victims and even the law is not able to stop it. The question that I feel we should ask ourselves is, whether we should allow ourselves to buy the life of a poor person, badly in need of money?

Date with Fate

One of the very senior sisters asked for my prayers for her younger brother who is fighting a fierce battle with cancer; the doctors have given him three months, and then he would be no more. There is no medicine which can really give him relief, and so he is counting his days. Just imagine a man counting the 90 days the doctors have given him. Given that he had remained single whole of his life, now entering into 75th year, what would be the kind of feelings he might be going through. I feel frightened to imagine such a situation; what can you do with the 90 days left on earth, and what is it that you would carry with you when the clock strikes at your last breath parts?

I was told that this gentleman told his 12 years senior sister that he was not afraid of facing death; he would be happy to be united with Jesus, his Lord! I shudder even as I imagine the man uttering these words rather joyously and courageously. Sometimes we have no other explanation in life than to resort to spiritualization of the fate we are pushed to. If we are pawns in the hands of gods, what is it that we can really do, than to resign to what they would wish for us? The situation might be quite different if he had had a family to care for; he would not have been left alone in the hospital ward, with friends occasionally dropping by, but this is a different kind of end than the one we are used to.

Science and technology have improved to such an extent that physicians are able to diagnose most of the ailments, though they may have to get a dozen blood tests to be done, and provide appropriate remedy, so that the doors to death are kept locked for many more years to come. But still there are certain doors which humanity is unable to keep locked for too long; they do not have much control over death, coming through the back door. Cancer and heart attacks are the two modern agents of death, and if cancer kills a person slowly and steadily, heart attack kills the person soon, if not diagnosed immediately. We lost our brother-in-law on the spot; we could never think the end would come so soon.

Sometimes I do this exercise : imagine that when I get up the next morning, I am no more; in such a situation, how should I handle myself. Sometimes while doing this exercise, I automatically arrange my table neatly, keep my room a little neat and tidy, and put a little order in the room, so that if I die, I do not leave a mess behind. But I need to do this exercise more often in order to complete the unfinished works soon, constantly make effort to put an order in my room, especially in keeping the things in their respective places, completing the unfinished tasks, so that the person who may look for things may not curse me then!

But deep within I feel so terrible for this man! How can life be so cruel to him? 90 days may pass by so fast, and one fine morning the physicians may tell him his final hour has come. I secretly hope that the word of the doctors does not come true; if only this man has got desire to live and not die, then probably no ailments and cancer can really take away his life. I have seen a few religious Sisters fighting with cancer joyously, even after the doctors had given them the number of years and months they may live; but they have disproved medical science, because their zest for life is so strong that death cannot approach them. The beauty of these people is that they have managed to defeat death, and that is the reason why these people are so very joyous and enthusiastic.

Return to Nature

Technology of medicine has improved so much today that it is very difficult to find a 'normal' person. Even the people who go to the doctor, come home with a host of ailments, which they had never thought of! What is so tragic is that being so very healthy and normal is also considered a major ailment, if not wholly physical, but psychological. There are tests for every imaginable thing, and it is so very easy for the doctors to prescribe half a dozen tests, in order to decipher what could have gone wrong; but gone are the days when the physicians would hold the hand of the patients and would be able to diagnose the disease. But that age seems to have gone.

Unfortunately health care has become a thriving business, where every vulnerable person is a serious casualty; the innocent and illiterate are the most vulnerable groups, who could be taken for a royal ride for the greedy physicians. It is no wonder that many senior people do not like to visit physicians, because of the fear that they would find some ailment or other, and prescribe tests and medicine, which may run into a thousand rupees. I wonder what sort of medicine my grand parents resorted to, and they all lived happily without running to the physicicans to extend their life span.

My maternal grand mother lived beyond 80 years, and I was not sure if she suffered from any major sickness; she never went to get her eyes checked, though after she reached the age of 70, her eye sight weakened, and still she was happy with the poor eye sight, and died so. But today we are forced to make regular medical checkups with physicians from a relatively young age. I tend to believe that this is an epoch of ailments, and according to medical fraternity, there is not a single normal person, and they are included in the list. But the way health care technology is forging ahead that it is bound to wreck the weak and the otherwise healthy.

I had been having slight pain on my left shoulder for quite sometime now, and when I consulted an orthopaedic, he asked me to take an X-ray of the shoulder, and do two blood tests, including one on the sugar. He said that he would be able to decipher what could be the possible problem with my shoulder, only after seeing the X-ray and the blood reports. The consultation fees (rupees 300 for about 5 minutes), and the other tests have cost a lot, and when I go to him again to show the reports, he would again charge me for consultation. I wonder what a poor man or woman would do in such a situation? How many people in today's world can afford such a kind of treatment?

Country medicine is an art which is neglected and forgotten; herbal medicine has long been considered a superstition, and physicians with high-flown degrees do not consider the herbal medicine as a healthy and positive practice. But it is time that we go back to our traditional medical practices; we need to get our grand parents who knew how to find an affordable and even free of cost medicare facilities, which can keep us hale and hearty for many years. There is nothing missing in nature's bounty, which cannot bring healing to any kind of disease or ailment, even if it is the worst kind of diseases the humanity has encountered. All that we need to do is to return to nature, and she will not let us down, for sure!