As I was helping my dear maid change our mattress sheets, I noticed that my usually bubbly cheery helper was lacking her usual charisma and energy. Upon enquiry she went on to share that she had not caught a lot of sleep the night before. She had a lot on her mind. As she recounted the night, I could almost relive the horror of having to face the discrimination she did.
Her sister, one of the three, had been ill for the last week and was brought to the city, in hopes of finding a better doctor/hospital. At the wee hours of the night, the family of sisters, an elderly mother, a distraught husband and a helpful brother in law, dragged a rather frail woman up and down three different hospitals before she was given some minimal medical attention and asked to come back in the morning.
Let me clarify, when I say hospital, I am not talking about the clinic or 2-3 room nursing room type of set up. This was a fully functional, top of the line super speciality Apollo, a KIMS and another Apollo. At each hospital they were turned away because they did not look like they could afford the rather steep cost of admission.... an estimated Rs 4,00,000/-. One of the on-call doctors even went a step ahead and declared that there were no guarantees even if they could produce the charges.
This raises several serious and alarming issues in my mind.
In a nation where free quality healthcare is a joke, are the poor and destitute not having access to healthcare even if they mortgage their very bones to be able to afford it?
Lets look at the estimated cost of INR 4,00,000/-. Is this what it costs to treat what is presumably a case of dengue fever? My mother underwent a heart valve replacement surgery at a similar cost. Why are we so easily able to dismiss our illiterate and less informed citizen with such grossly inaccurate predictions. Is this just an excuse to get out of work? Work that could possibly save a life, a mother, a daughter? Have we reached a time in our existence that we are able to judge by a single look whether a life is worth saving?
We are in a world that is emerging with technologies so advanced that we have some of the smartest minds questioning whether robots will one day take over for us? I am beginning to believe that they wont really need to. While we are teaching them to be more human, we are mirroring them. We have forgotten or pushed to the very back of our conscience what makes us human... our humanity.
We have gotten so used to not caring, we are beginning to forget what it was like when we did. We have gotten used to the misery, distraught and even death. And it feels ok to go on despite these unspeakable atrocities. Because in a world that is driven by stringent deadlines and hourly schedules, where we have so many devices and technologies that ensure we keep up the deadlines and schedules, we must move on... we can NOT afford to lose precious minutes thinking about what is wrong with the world or with us.
Be the change you want to see in the world... I love this one. I try and live by it as best as I can. We must learn to be kind again. We must teach ourselves to care and understand our priorities. Be kind, care and love. If you can not do that, think about what your purpose in life truly is.
Her sister, one of the three, had been ill for the last week and was brought to the city, in hopes of finding a better doctor/hospital. At the wee hours of the night, the family of sisters, an elderly mother, a distraught husband and a helpful brother in law, dragged a rather frail woman up and down three different hospitals before she was given some minimal medical attention and asked to come back in the morning.
Let me clarify, when I say hospital, I am not talking about the clinic or 2-3 room nursing room type of set up. This was a fully functional, top of the line super speciality Apollo, a KIMS and another Apollo. At each hospital they were turned away because they did not look like they could afford the rather steep cost of admission.... an estimated Rs 4,00,000/-. One of the on-call doctors even went a step ahead and declared that there were no guarantees even if they could produce the charges.
This raises several serious and alarming issues in my mind.
In a nation where free quality healthcare is a joke, are the poor and destitute not having access to healthcare even if they mortgage their very bones to be able to afford it?
Lets look at the estimated cost of INR 4,00,000/-. Is this what it costs to treat what is presumably a case of dengue fever? My mother underwent a heart valve replacement surgery at a similar cost. Why are we so easily able to dismiss our illiterate and less informed citizen with such grossly inaccurate predictions. Is this just an excuse to get out of work? Work that could possibly save a life, a mother, a daughter? Have we reached a time in our existence that we are able to judge by a single look whether a life is worth saving?
We are in a world that is emerging with technologies so advanced that we have some of the smartest minds questioning whether robots will one day take over for us? I am beginning to believe that they wont really need to. While we are teaching them to be more human, we are mirroring them. We have forgotten or pushed to the very back of our conscience what makes us human... our humanity.
We have gotten so used to not caring, we are beginning to forget what it was like when we did. We have gotten used to the misery, distraught and even death. And it feels ok to go on despite these unspeakable atrocities. Because in a world that is driven by stringent deadlines and hourly schedules, where we have so many devices and technologies that ensure we keep up the deadlines and schedules, we must move on... we can NOT afford to lose precious minutes thinking about what is wrong with the world or with us.
Be the change you want to see in the world... I love this one. I try and live by it as best as I can. We must learn to be kind again. We must teach ourselves to care and understand our priorities. Be kind, care and love. If you can not do that, think about what your purpose in life truly is.
