Day 7 of Surgery: A Parents’ Praises Warm The Heart

The last morning of admitting yielded similar results as other days – a number of no shows. A new patient arrived: 6-month-old Kavya Dharshini with a cleft lip. She was 100% sugar and didn’t fuss a bit as we quickly set-up a chart and examined her. She was immediately put into the schedule and within two hours we were back out into the hallway to collect her for surgery.

I remember this from last year's mission:  the mother’s crying as their babies were taken from them. This one was no exception. Tears streamed down her face as she kept touching Kavya face and arms; I went to her with the only thing I could give her…a hug, and held her as the baby was moved into the OR. The father stood by speaking seemingly to himself and then approached me with his hand for a shake. As he clutched my hand he said, “We praise God today for this blessing. Thank you so much.” I was touched. All I did was fill out some papers. I’ll have to check on Kavya tomorrow and try to get a picture. We were in such a hurry to process her that I didn’t. She’s precious.

I then turned to processing the last charts of the mission and getting the files ready for tomorrow’s post-operative mission. This is a time of joy – the patients come back to get final exams from the medical teams and then go home to pursue their lives as before, but hopefully improved in some way. The charts have to be in a certain order so that the process is efficient as by then everyone is ready to go. I must admit, I am ready too.

The final part of my day was fun. On the advice of my Indian friend, Kannan, I brought good chocolates from home to give as gifts to some of the people who were of particular help to me in my job as the medical records person. I passed out six gifts one by one to the resident and four medical students, who took extra care to help me with translation over the past week, as well as to the Rotary Club of Karaikal president who all but saved the mission on the pre-op clinic day when it was bedlam and I was losing my mind. All were very grateful to be recognized with some Ghiradelli and a note from me. On that note, the heavy lifting on this mission was done.