Very relevant message in today's scenario.
Courtesy - Bheem's status message on GTalk
5 years ago
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Sorry state of affairs
Knowledge has this immense power to transform lives. I have come across so many incidents in my line of work that have reinforced my belief in this fact. Here’s an example.
My colleague VM recently travelled to his native village, near Varanasi. There he discovered that all was not well in his sister-in-law’s marital life. After a little probing, he found out the root cause – she wasn’t able to get pregnant. He got to know that she had had fibroids in her uterus. Apparently, she had travelled to Varanasi and had already undergone surgery once to remove the fibroids. This surgery had been performed abdominally, through a 6cm long incision. This had resulted in a long and painful recovery period. But after sometime, the problem of fibroids had resurfaced and the original problem of inability to conceive, remained unaddressed. So the couple had approached the same gynecologist again. This time around, the gynecologist had suggested a “brilliant” solution - total removal of the uterus – abdominal hysterectomy. Worse, he had also told the couple that this was the only solution, which was far from the truth. Needless to say, this worsened the situation in an already troubled marriage. Fortunately fate intervened in the form of VM who, due to his regular interactions with GYN surgeons in his line of work, was aware that the removal of the uterus was totally unnecessary. He confronted this gynecologist, who promptly retracted his statement. VM then brought his sister-in-law to Mumbai and got her surgery done laparoscopically. Also, the surgeon has assured the woman that she will be able to conceive through the process of in-vitro fertilization.
The alternative to abdominal/open surgery is to perform the surgery in a laparoscopic manner. This is referred to as keyhole surgery in layman language.
It is unfortunate, that a large segment of our country’s population is unaware about such options.
It is unfortunate for VM’s sister-in-law, that neither her gynecologist nor any other surgeon in Varanasi, was trained to perform laparoscopic surgery. Medical colleges don’t teach students how to perform laparoscopic surgery.
It is unfortunate that many doctors mislead their patients, to mask their inabilities and to make a quick buck.
It is fortunate that there are quite a few good doctors, who at least encourage their patients to try other options and guide them properly, before giving up.
It is unfortunate that unethical and unscrupulous doctors and surgeons outnumber the good ones by a large, significant margin.
My colleague VM recently travelled to his native village, near Varanasi. There he discovered that all was not well in his sister-in-law’s marital life. After a little probing, he found out the root cause – she wasn’t able to get pregnant. He got to know that she had had fibroids in her uterus. Apparently, she had travelled to Varanasi and had already undergone surgery once to remove the fibroids. This surgery had been performed abdominally, through a 6cm long incision. This had resulted in a long and painful recovery period. But after sometime, the problem of fibroids had resurfaced and the original problem of inability to conceive, remained unaddressed. So the couple had approached the same gynecologist again. This time around, the gynecologist had suggested a “brilliant” solution - total removal of the uterus – abdominal hysterectomy. Worse, he had also told the couple that this was the only solution, which was far from the truth. Needless to say, this worsened the situation in an already troubled marriage. Fortunately fate intervened in the form of VM who, due to his regular interactions with GYN surgeons in his line of work, was aware that the removal of the uterus was totally unnecessary. He confronted this gynecologist, who promptly retracted his statement. VM then brought his sister-in-law to Mumbai and got her surgery done laparoscopically. Also, the surgeon has assured the woman that she will be able to conceive through the process of in-vitro fertilization.
The alternative to abdominal/open surgery is to perform the surgery in a laparoscopic manner. This is referred to as keyhole surgery in layman language.
It is unfortunate, that a large segment of our country’s population is unaware about such options.
It is unfortunate for VM’s sister-in-law, that neither her gynecologist nor any other surgeon in Varanasi, was trained to perform laparoscopic surgery. Medical colleges don’t teach students how to perform laparoscopic surgery.
It is unfortunate that many doctors mislead their patients, to mask their inabilities and to make a quick buck.
It is fortunate that there are quite a few good doctors, who at least encourage their patients to try other options and guide them properly, before giving up.
It is unfortunate that unethical and unscrupulous doctors and surgeons outnumber the good ones by a large, significant margin.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Happy Women's day
I would’ve never paid special attention to this day (never have in the past) had it not been for the following reasons –
1. It was splashed all over ToI. Kareena Kapoor’s face was on every page. I wasn’t amused to wake up and read about how Kareena believes Saif gives her enough space and what she does on Sundays.
2. There were way more lingerie ads than usual.
3. Hilary Rodham Clinton had made a statement that investing in women should help us out of the current recession.
4. Quite a few people called up to wish my wife
I guess it makes sense to devote a day to celebrate the presence of women in our lives, since we do take them for granted the rest of the time. But I guess every year it turns into a gimmick, and newspapers and TV channels have a field day “celebrating” it.
Being the male chauvinist that I am, I started wondering if there was an International Men’s day. To my surprise, I found there is one such day. Among other things, this day is an opportunity for men to recognize achievements, project role models and highlight discrimination against men!! One more interesting fact – International women’s day was first observed in 1909, a full 90 years before the first Men’s day, which was first observed on Nov 19, 1999. Now, I wasn’t around in Bombay during the last women’s day, but I sure was around on Nov 19th. I definitely don’t remember seeing Saif’s (or any other man’s) face on every page of ToI, giving me intimate details about how Kareena gives him enough space. I don’t remember if there were more male underwear ads than usual. It would definitely be interesting to find out!
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