My Tryst with Death- A Conquer or Great Escape?
Author :
Shishir Gupta
Blog :TREATISE
Date: 1/15/2012 3:06:29 PM
Well honestly, a meeting of such a kind is something not very new to me. I have had a couple of opportunities in the past where I had just managed to avoid it. But I guess this time I got the closest to meet my end. It surely has not been a good start to a new year, but that something that is not new to me. In the past 12 years (including this one now) 9 times I have been admitted to the hospital in the month of January, of which 5 times I had to be admitted in the ICU of the hospital. In fact for the past two years the trend had changed and I believed that I had finally got over with this “January issue” of mine. But it has come back this year, and is back with a bang. The last time I came as close to death was also around a similar time 4 years back. It was on 9th of January 2008, when my bike skit while I was performing stunts, and I was majorly injured. After a 5 day battle, I had finally survived that time, but my injury to the intestines that time has now come back to haunt me, big time, and had been the major cause for the events that occurred this time.
It all happened on the Wednesday night 11th January 2012. To give you a small background – I have had a little problem with my small intestines, as they had developed so ulcers within them which had been bleeding for over 10 days by then. The medicine I was taking was somehow not effective at all till that day. When I passed motions, fresh blood also accompanied making me weaker and weaker as every day passed by. But on the morning of 11th for the first time in 13 days I had not lost blood, this event itself caused me to get charged up and excited. I believed that finally after a fight of 12 long days the medication had worked. That day, just out of enthusiasm and excitement I took things very casually, especially my health. And all that over enthusiasm backfired.
That night I lost a huge amount of blood making my blood pressure fall to a very low level. I was immediately hurried to the hospital by my brother, mother and my cousin. My condition was in a kind of a critical state. I was in such a bad shape that around 2 a.m. in the morning I had to be transfused with a bottle of blood. That probably got me back to the normal. In fact a laser surgery was already planned for Saturday, but seeing my condition the doctors thought of not delaying the surgery that further, and have it on Friday itself. As time went by my condition was getting better, and then I took probably the most stupid step, a decision I probably regret all life, or I can say had it got a little more worse I would not have remained to regret it. I had not applied for leave for the coming days in office, so I thought of going to the office for some time, so that I could apply for leave. That act of mine took a lot of toll on my body, as I had exerted a lot already. And though my trip to office and back was very short, for just around two hours including the travelling time, that exertion was enough to be nearly fatal. After reaching back home, once again when I passed motions I lost a huge amount of blood, and for me it felt as if all the blood that was transfused in the morning had been lost. My condition had worsened, and was even worse than it was in the previous night. When I reached the hospital, the doctors took the decision of not even waiting for the next morning and operating on me as soon as possible. I was finally taken into the Operation Theatre around 7 in the evening, and by 9 the operation was successful.
I don’t know whether this was my victory over death or it was a great escape from one or I was just lucky to survive. But one thing that confuses me the most was that was my condition really that bad or was it just my carelessness and foolishness that set up my meeting with death. I really know whom to blame for all of this, my condition or my attitude towards my condition. I remember my office colleagues asking me all those 10 days to go home and take rest, but I just did not listen and probably got myself caught in such a situation.
But I must say that the 5 hours from the time I reached the hospital, till the time the operation was over were really terrible. All that time, I had this feeling that I had touched my end, and it appeared as if all the life was getting reflected before me. And after that all I don’t know but I believe I am a changed man now. I have suddenly started respecting life a little more. I have always been very careless when it comes to my health. In fact health has always been very low on my priority list. In fact the 2008 event also did not teach me much on this front. All it taught was that I had to ride my bike safely, nothing else. But this time around I have a feeling things have changed, and I believe that I will have to change my priority list for sure, getting health somewhere towards the top from bottom.
I hope that all the events that occurred during the past two weeks change my perspective towards life and that now I have no more such “lovely” trysts with my end in distant future.
