The surgical combo
Updated On: 17 August, 2025 07:10 AM IST | Mumbai | Dr Mazda Turel
In surgery, like in life, it’s usually one step at a time. But when fate slaps you with two equally urgent problems, it’s best to hit back with a one-two combo
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Arundhati aunty walked in with the kind of careful gait that made me nervous before she even sat down. She was in her mid-sixties, with a neatly draped cotton sari and her hair in a braid slick with oil. She looked like the sort of person who would bring her own steel tiffin to the hospital canteen. Beside her was her son: mid-thirties, in a pressed pastel shirt and formal trousers, and carrying her handbag as if it were an infant. He had the slightly anxious look of a man who had Googled too much and slept too little.
“My legs don’t listen to me anymore,” she said. “My back hurts and the legs feel heavy and numb and tight and loose at the same time,” she said, acknowledging how confusing the description was. She needed to sit down after every few minutes of walking. “And my hands… they’ve become lazy.” Her son jumped in, “She drops spoons, can’t button her blouse, and keeps tripping when she walks. Two other doctors have seen her.”
One said the problem lay in the neck, while the other said it was in the lower back,” she interrupted. “And both told me to rest. I don’t have the time to rest,” she made it clear.
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