US sends back paralysed techie to Delhi

[Guest guest]

Read the following story on TOI and it can happen to anyone - some of my views:

1. It is a myth that US can provide best medical treatment - it cannot cure patients that really need help.

2. The medical treatment is money driven - if there is no money - there is no treatment.

3. The medical treatment is very expensive offered by US.

4. We need to take care of our health - and give it top priority - no health can lead to lots of problems.

5. Hospitals in India too are not capable of taking care of critically ill.

6. Family and friends are there only till health is there - even they leave if one is not well.

7. Can Nature Cure help in this -- it may not be able to get the person back to same level but i am optimistic of its benefits. However its implementation will require lots of support form his family - which may not come. Pranayam and other activites may help.

 

Please do reply and let me know your views - Lokesh

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2846532.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Against all odds: Manjunath waiting for his fate to unravel

NEW DELHI: Manjunath Kalmani occasionally gives a confused smile. But his eyes never smile. Framed by the iron headrest of his hospital bed, a striped sheet draped over him, Manju remains immobile. Actually, he can't move even he wanted to — he has been paralysed neck down following a car accident in the US on May 1, 2002. (Watch: Paralysed techie rejected by parents)

The date is etched in his brain that's ticking away — and registering every bizarre twist in his life story that took a dramatic turn on that early May morning. Not only was his promising life as a software engineer rudely interrupted at the age of 27, but he was reduced to a vegetable, living under the care of nurses in an alien land. And today he's back home, but with no one to take care of him.

That's the latest twist in his short but eventful life. On Wednesday an air ambulance ferried him from Northside Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia, to the Palam airport. And from there, he was taken and dumped at Safdarjung Hospital which put him on a ventilator. The crippling paralysis has made his respiratory system useless.

Manju was on his way home from Nashville that May Day when his car spun out of control and hit a tree, leaving him with a badly injured spine. Following a brain stroke, and an emergency operation, he was paralysed neck down.

So all he can do now is speak in a rasping whisper that's not easy to comprehend. " I want to meet my mother. I haven't met her for the past eight years. Please tell her I'm missing her if you get to speak to her, " he told TOI.

Manju's family is in Koppal, Karnataka. But hesitant to come to Delhi. " Come, and do what? " asked his brother Sudhakar when contacted over phone. The family can't afford his treatment, and fears it might be forced to take him back home. " We can't take care of Manju. He is on ventilator and we don't have the facility to take care of him, " said Sudhakar, who works in a cooperative society that lends money to farmers and petty businessmen. Manju's father is a farmer and mother Vidyawati a housewife.

There was a time when the same family thought Manju would change everything for them. He had got a job with an American new economy company, weather.com, for which he was developing software. But the economy turned choppy and weather.com laid off many. Manju, too, got the pink slip. As it turned out, life had greater trials in store.

 

Soon after his accident, software engineer Manjunath Kalmani underwent treatment at Vanderbilt Hospital, Nashville. From there he was shifted to Shepherd Rehabilitation Centre, Atlanta, where he stayed for four years. But towards the end he was moved into a community apartment, where nurses took care of him. Here his condition became worse. He was moved in and out of hospital as he developed various complications.

Manju can't even call for help on his own. He claims that often his nurses at the apartment building would not give him food, if only to prevent him from passing stool and save themselves the task of cleaning up the mess. His pancreas packed up while he was there.

When we met him at the Safdarjung Hospital, Manju's head had slipped from the pillow and he wanted somebody to straighten it out. Breathing hard with the help of the transport ventilator he whispered for help. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to speak to us.

" I was forced to leave Shepherd hospital. I didn't know that I was being sent to India till the last day, " he rasped with difficulty. It was difficult to follow what he said. His diet is reduced to carbohydrates, as due to excess protein in his body, he gets uncomfortable when he eats something else. " I have been on rice for years now, " he told us.

Manju needs to be in an ICU, as his condition is serious. He had developed bedsores and has to be looked after well. But with nobody by his side, he waits for help. The attending nurses find it difficult to understand what he says and carry a pen and paper to write down as Manju spells sentences with difficulty.

Till recently, he has been interacting with his family members from the hospital in Atlanta over Internet. " I use morse code to interact with my family on the computer. My means of communication is a laptop. I operate my computer using sip-n-puff mouth control device, " wrote Kalmani in his blog, which he started writing in 2007. But the laptop was taken away from him a month back.

Meanwhile, Manju has been shifted to the ICU in Safdarjung Hospital. " We will inform DGHS about the incident and do whatever we can to help him, " said medical superintendent Dr Jagdish Prasad.