Practicing Medicine With Sai

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Practicing Medicine With Sai

Charles Bollmann, M.D.

Raised a Catholic, I entered the seminary to become a priest at an early age.

After two years, I realized it was not for me. I then spent my junior and

senior years at a Catholic high school in New Jersey, attended Villanova

University in Pennsylvania, and then attended the University of Medicine, in

New Jersey, for my medical degree. Residency training and a busy medical

practice kept me busy for several years, but I was always on the "spiritual

path." I simply did not have time to pursue it; there was so much to learn.

Finally, I felt I was enough of an expert in medicine to get back to what I was

really interested in - metaphysics. I started studying all types of spiritual

knowledge and paths, from Scientology to Eastern philosophy. I read

Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahamsa Yogananda, books by Ram Dass and Carlos

Castaneda, as well as others by Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi. I knew I had

to go to India but did not know where to go. While visiting a bookstore in Del

Mar, California, I found a small section of metaphysical books. For two hours,

while my wife was shopping, I went over every book in the section, but found

nothing of interest. When my wife returned, I refused to leave until I found

the right book. Immediately, I turned around and there, not even two feet away

from me, was Sai Baba's picture looking directly at me. The book was The Holy

Man and the Psychiatrist by Dr. Samuel Sandweiss. After reading it, I knew I

had to go to India.

AND SO, LIKE ALL DEVOTEES WHO HAD COME UNDER THE SPELL OF SWAMI, DR. BOLLMAN

WENT TO INDIA, AND OF COURSE SAW SWAMI. THIS WAS WAY BACK IN 1977. DURING THIS

TRIP, HE ALSO MET MANY DEVOTEES, INCLUDING DOCTORS. LET US HEAR MORE ABOUT THAT

FROM BOLLMAN’S ARTICLE.

During this trip, I met several doctors and asked them if they had witnessed any

miracles. Dr. Rajeswari, the obstetrician-gynecologist who was the head of the

Bangalore hospital, told me the following story. A patient others was scheduled

for a hysterectomy for fibroid tumors. On the doctor's rounds the morning of the

surgery, the patient told her that Swami had come during the night, ripped out a

fleshy mass of tissue, and told her she did not need surgery. Dr. Rajeswari was

skeptical, but when she pulled back the sheet to examine the patient, there was

a healed scar present that had not been there the day before. On further

examination, the tumor had completely disappeared and the uterus was back to

normal.

IN JANUARY 1978, SHORTLY AFTER DR. BOLLMAN RETURNED TO PHOENIX IN ARIZONA, HIS

WIFE GAVE BIRTH TO A DAUGHTER. AT THAT TIME, A PATIENT NAMED TERRY CAME TO DR.

BOLLMAN. OVER NOW TO DR. BOLLMAN.

Terry's first pregnancy had progressed normally until about six weeks before her

due date. As her obstetrician, I was surprised to get a call from the hospital

that she was in labor. The delivery was uneventful, and the baby, while

premature, was doing well. On returning to my office, the post-partum nurse

called and informed me Terry's blood pressure was markedly elevated. While

making rounds the next morning, I realized Terry's laboratory findings were

extremely abnormal. In essence, all of the liver-function tests were elevated.

For a healthy female of 26 years, this was extremely unusual.

Terry, developed a postpartum hemorrhage. The diagnosis of a rare disorder,

acute yellow atrophy of the liver in pregnancy, was made. This is a condition

in which the liver is almost completely replaced by fat cells and is unable to

function. The cause is unknown, and the condition is extremely rare. Since no

one can live without a liver, Terry's condition rapidly deteriorated. Another

postpartum hemorrhage developed, and I was required to perform a hysterectomy

to control the bleeding.

Despite my efforts and those of 10 other specialists in various fields, we

continued to lose ground. Terry developed a hemorrhage from the stomach and

gastrointestinal (GI) tract, renal failure, and a stress ulcer. She went into

congestive heart failure and, finally, coma. During all this she remained in a

coma. I asked Sai Baba to help her and me to get through this, and I gave her

vibhuti.

LIFE NOW BECAME VERY DIFFICULT FOR DR. BOLLMAN. TERRY’S SERIOUS ILLNESS WAS

AFFECTING HIS WORK AND HIS FAMILY LIFE AS WELL, AND HE DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO,

UNTIL HE REALISED THAT SWAMI ALONE COULD GET HIM OUT OF DIFFICULTY. THIS IS WHAT

HE SAYS.

I asked Swami to help me. I drew the curtain around the bed and began to talk to

the comatose Terry. I explained that the situation could not continue as it was,

and that it was interfering with my life, my other patients, and my new-born

child. I explained that she had a lot to live for, with her husband and their

new baby. I then returned to my office to see patients. Within an hour, the

intensive-care nurse called and excitedly told me that Terry had awakened from

the coma. Two days later, she left the intensive-care unit and, within one

week, she returned home with her baby. Six weeks later, her liver function was

entirely normal. I know that the results would have been different had Swami

not had His hand in the matter. This was my first assurance that Swami would

always be there to guide me in caring for my patients, and this has lasted

throughout my medical career.

DR. BOLLMAN NOW BEGAN TO MAKE REGULAR VISITS TO PUTTAPARTHI, AND HAD MANY

EXPERIENCES, INCLUDING WONDERFUL INTERVIEWS. AS A FELLOW GYNECOLOGIST, HE HAD

MANY PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS WITH LATE DR. RAJESWARI, AND ALSO OFTEN LISTENED TO

HER AMAZING EXPERIENCES. MORE ABOUT THAT NOW.

During the times I visited with Dr. Rajeswari at the hospital, she told many

stories about Swami. The most amazing story Dr. Rajeswari shared with me was

her experience of being brought back from the dead. She had not been feeling

well for several days, suffering from chest pain and dizziness. She informed

Swami, and He told her He would take care of her. However, He told her to make

sure that she saw a doctor to get her hypertension under control. Being a busy

physician, she failed to take Swami's advice. She suffered a fatal heart

attack. When she arrived at the small hospital emergency room, the EKG showed

ventricular fibrillation, an extreme condition where the heart is not

functioning, requiring electroshock therapy to bring it back to its normal

rhythm. She emphasized that it was not ventricular tachycardia, a condition

that sometimes spontaneously reverses, but ventricular fibrillation. As they

did not have the personnel or the equipment where she was being treated, they

tried to transfer her to a larger hospital. However, her heart stopped. They

later told her that she had died on the way to the other hospital. During that

time, she was unconscious and has no memory of what happened. When she awoke in

the hospital, the entire room was orange. Everywhere she looked she saw orange.

She said to the nurse, "I have been in many hospitals all over the world, but I

have never seen a hospital room that was orange." The nurse replied, "Are you

crazy, woman? There is no orange here." She said she later checked the EKG for

herself and confirmed the presence of ventricular fibrillation.

SWAMI BRINGS PEOPLE TO HIM, ONLY WHEN THERE IS AN INNER YEARNING. WE HAVE HEARD

DR. BOLLMAN TELL US THAT HE ALWAYS HAD A SPIRITUAL YEARNING FROM THE TIME HE

WAS YOUNG. ONCE HE CAME TO SWAMI, THE TRANSFORMATION BEGAN. THIS IS WHAT DR.

BOLLMAN SAYS ABOUT IT.

One of the many things Swami has taught me is that the solution to every problem

is absorption in God-consciousness. It has saved me many times, and I am sure

will continue to do so. I have found that whenever I am confronted with any

problem, I take a deep breath and think of God.

THE SPRITUAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE SAI DEVOTEE DOES NOT STAND ALOOF. RATHER, IT

HELPS HIM OR HER TO CONVERT KARMA INTO TRUE KARMA YOGA, A PROCESS THAT REVEALS

HOW IN THE ULTIMATE ANALYSIS, IT IS ALWAYS GOD WHO IS THE DOER. BY WAY OF

ILLUSTRATING THIS POINT, DR. BOLLMAN NOW TALKS ABOUT ONE OF HIS DIFFICULT

CASES.

Once I had to do a hysterectomy on a short, very obese patient (more than 300

pounds) who had extremely heavy bleeding, so much so that she needed blood

transfusions on two different occasions in the last year. While hysterectomy

was recommended, no other surgeon seemed willing to do it because of the

technical difficulty involved in surgery for a patient of that size. Her very

enlarged uterus, which could not move up or down, would make the surgery much

more difficult. It was a surgical and anesthetic nightmare.

When I saw her for the first time, she had just bled down to a hemoglobin of

6gms (normal is 12-14) and had just been seen in the emergency room. She was

finally convinced she needed something done. After stopping the bleeding with

hormones and treating her with medications to improve her blood count prior to

surgery, I scheduled her for surgery. The surgery was the nightmare I thought

it would be. It was almost impossible to see anything due to the amount of

intra-abdominal fat and the enlarged and fixed uterus. She hemorrhaged from the

uterine artery and lost a great deal of blood, which required multiple

transfusions. Needless to say, I asked Swami for help before, during, and after

surgery. I began to wonder where He was. Actually, I knew He was there but was

wondering what He was doing.

After we finished the operation, we were far behind in our transfusions and

fluid replacement. However, the IV had infiltrated, and all attempts at IVs and

arterial lines by many anesthesiologists failed, again because of her extreme

weight. I found myself in the intensive care unit with a patient who had no

urine output, was very pale, and obviously blood-depleted. I had no way to give

her blood or fluids. Her pulse rate was extremely high, and her blood pressure

very low. Every physician we called for help seemed to be busy with his or her

own problems. The general surgeon I usually call was at her mother's funeral!

We could not even turn the patient from side to side in the bed, because she

filled the entire bed and could not be turned.

What to do? I began saying the Gayatri mantra on my japamala. I realized I was

not the doer, only the witness. I wondered if the patient would die. When I was

about halfway through my japamala, my spouse called me and asked if I had tried

vibhuti. She volunteered to bring some. I was very surprised to realize that

she had thought of the vibhuti and I had not. While saying the Gayatri, and on

hearing about the vibhuti, I realized what Sai is to my life. HE IS MY LIFE.

Not only my life, but it seems I have trained my family the same way.

I continued to say the Gayatri. Suddenly, the anesthesiologist got an arterial

line in after about 180 sticks in the neck. We gave the patient blood and

fluids, and she slowly responded. She left the hospital just the other day in

good condition.

SWAMI LAYS GREAT EMPHASIS ON KSHAMA OR FORBEARNCE AND DAYA OR COMPASSION. TRUE

DEVOTEES TRY HARD TO ACQUIRE THESE VIRTUES SO THAT THEY WOULD BECOME REALLY

DEAR TO SAI. KSHAMA AND DAYA NOT MERELY ADORN BUT ACTUALLY HELP, AS DR. BOLLMAN

TELLS US.

Over the years, since I have been with Swami, I have learned to be more patient

and more compassionate; I have left behind the prejudice I was raised with. I

do not judge, and this has helped my patients open up to me.

I have learned to handle problem patients, or patients with problems that are

not physical. Previously, I would find that depressed patients would also leave

me depressed, as they dumped all their problems on me. Now, merely by silently

repeating my mantra while I am sitting and listening to them, I find that their

problems seem to disappear. I am able to remain calm, and they leave with some

of their burden lifted. And I am doing nothing but silently repeating Om Sai

Ram.

Source:

Radio Sai E-Magazine 15th April 2004

http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/08April15/05_Moments_Memories/memories.htm