The surgical ‘doctor’s day’

On July 1 I woke up to a barrage of messages WhatsApp was buzzing with Happy Doctorsrsquo Day wishes Doctor groups wished each other family groups said loving things to the physicians in their families patientsrsquo groups hailed them as superheroes and medical representatives gestured how we were the backbone of our society albeit with a gentle reminder to prescribe drugs that would make society even strongerI had a perfectly organised day ahead of me Yoga in the morning two standard spine operations a regular list of patients in the clinic between the two surgeries and then an early dinner with family and some friends who were visiting8 AM ldquoGood morning Mrs Jonesrdquo I greeted the feisty lady with a firm handshake as we wheeled her in the coldness of the operating room making way for the warmth of our smiles She had a critical compression of her nerves in her lumbar spine at three levels There was fluid in her joints and her spinal ligaments were lax resulting in her vertebrae slipping over each other After five hours we had meticulously relieved her compression by biting away at all the overgrown ligament replaced three of her discs with metal cages and realigned her spine with eight screws and two rods making it look picture perfect When you have sweat trickling down your back in a room thatrsquos 16degC you know yoursquove worked for your lunch She woke up feeling great ldquoI feel like I have new legsrdquo she exclaimed I showed her an Xray of her resurrected spine ldquoThere is so much metal in thererdquo she gasped ldquoI could audition for the next Iron Man movierdquo she said still groggy from the anaesthesia but with all her spirit intact ldquoIrsquom going to the OPDrdquo I told my colleague as he prepped to get the next case in2 PM I saw a bunch of patients in the OPD after I finished my first case Some bought along a box of chocolates some gave pretty flowers and others drew up a card or two Some didnrsquot have an appointment but just showed up to wish I was overwhelmed A few years ago even doctors didnrsquot know it was Doctorsrsquo Day and now thanks to social media every day is a Day The nurses had also arranged a small celebration with high tea cake cutting and games which we briefly partook in4 PM Our second case for the day was a 55yearold man with neck and arm pain that was bothering him relentlessly He had a C56 disc prolapse We had to artistically open up his neck retracting his carotid artery to one side and his food pipe to the other and remove the disc cramping his nerve We inserted a cute titanium cage in the place of that disc as a souvenir for him to remember us whenever he sees an Xray of his neck which I usually ask my patients to frame and hang in their room as a reminder to take care of themselves ldquoMy pain is completely gonerdquo he said looking at this arm in disbelief after the operation ldquoIrsquom going to do rounds of all our patients and then head outrdquo I told my colleague adding cockily ldquoI have dinner plansrdquo ldquoIrsquom going to the ER to see someonerdquo he replied7 PM We were operating on the third case of the day A 72yearold man with a large haemorrhage in his brain from uncontrolled hypertension had come in for emergency surgery Irsquom never annoyed when plans are cancelled and got right to it We swiftly opened up one half of his head The brain ballooned out with each heartbeat threatening to make it burst I nicked into a safe part of the surface to slurp out the blood clot expeditiously deflating the balloon and restoring calm ldquoWill you closerdquo I requested my assistant still hoping I could make it for dinner ldquoWe will keep him on a ventilator tonight and see how he faresrdquo I told the family ldquoThank yourdquo they said sensing my hurry10 PM I made it to dinner while everyone was having dessert We sat in a restaurant overlooking the harbour and I devoured crispy fried prawns while bragging about how hard I worked ldquoOne thing COVID has taught me is never to complain about workrdquo one of them said and we all agreed We spoke about what it means to be a doctor in our country in these times We spoke about how doctors were revered generations ago while today we are simply service providers who are expected to do their job well and pay the price if the customer wasnrsquot happy ldquoTouch wood Indian patients are far more understanding about things than those in the Westrdquo I muttered as I walloped some icecream and got ready to call it a day1130 PM ldquoSir the brain tumour we were to operate on two days later has come to the ER now The patient is unconscious Wersquove intubated him His CT shows a massive increase in the size of the cyst behind the tumour which is probably why hersquos in a comardquo Never alarmed by an emergency I signalled all my people to cram into one car while I took off alone in mine ldquoTake him in but talk to the family itrsquos a highgrade cancerrdquo I ordered1 AM We were opening up another head The tumour occupied the entire frontal lobe almost a quarter of his brain The ghoulish monster reared its ugly head but we attacked it on all fours My assistant and I performed a synchronised symphony in the middle of the night miraculously converting an angry brain into a composed one His frontal lobe now sat in a jar on the nursersquos table When I took the specimen and showed it to his wife she collapsed A few sprinkles later she woke up to the realisation that a quarter of her husbandrsquos identity was now on a table in the operating room Despite that he was going to live a normalmdashand hopefully healthiermdashlife8 AM I drove home feeling the exhaustion of the past 24 hours but was revitalised by the onset of the monsoon The rain and smell of the wet earth energised me making me look forward to the day to comeEach year July 1 is celebrated as National Doctorsrsquo Day in honour of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy who was instrumental in setting up the Medical Council of India of which he was the founder president He was a renowned physician freedom fighter educationist and philanthropist and served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for 14 years July 1 happens to be his birth 1882 and also his death 1962 anniversary Had he died on any other date he is likely to have had two days celebrated in his honour in homage of his legendary contribution to medicine in IndiaJuly 1 is also National Chartered Accountant Day to celebrate the formation of the Institute of Charted Accountants of India in 1949 I would have wished them with all my heart but Irsquoll wish with only twothirds of itmdashbecause they always deduct a third from everything I doThe writer is practising neurosurgeon at Wockhardt Hospitals and Honorary Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals