The Last Laugh
No one shed a tear. There was a strange calm in the air. It was the calm that got to Dr. Sanjivini. Hysteria, acusations, ravings, heart-wrenching sobs, she had seen them all; the silence was not new, but the acceptance and the tiniest glimmer of relief she saw shook her. Emotions that had been put aside for professional sobriety slowly rose. And unseen by the people around her, the tears started to fall.
She was a regular to the wards. It was almost a monthly occurance. Come mid-month and she would be there. A few days in her company and then she would walk-off with a wave. She always said "poyittu varen" (i'll be back). They never appreciated the irony of it.
Her name was Madhu. Sweet as her name implied, she also had the unexpected tang on gets with honey. She was vocal about her likes and dislikes. And very very picky with people. She was also a patient who suffered from cerebral palsy, with boderline mental retardation.
She had been a premie. The first 3 weeks of her life were in the incubator. Nothing unusual was noted till she was 5 months old. By the time she was 7 months old, she was diagnosed. She had been to many specialists, quacks, naturopaths, before she came into Dr. sanjivini's life. By that time 8 years had passed and her kidneys and liver had tired of the drugs they processed.
She was barely alive when they wheeled her into the emergency. The first one to see her was Sanjivini. No one still knew how she had survived. And for some reason she hated Sanjivini. She would be sweet to even the nurse who used drew her blood everyday, to the attendants who took her for dialysis and to almost everybody in general, but if Sanjivini came into her line of vision, pandemonim would break. That was the only time her mental retardation would become obvious; apart from the protruding tongue, the gait and the occasional slurry speech, it was easy to overlook it.
Every month she would be admitted for a check-up. Sometimes she would be brought in for an occasional flare-up. Then the pediatric ward would be an entertaining place to be. She was a native of Chennai, but for some strange reason had kovai slang - her mother said she had picked it up from her ayah. Most people would be taken aback by her vocabulary for it was good, even for a normal child.
Her parents were well-off. She was an only child. Her birth had been awaited with bated breath. The shock at her condition would have crushed most, not her family. She never lacked visitors, she was a magnet for people. Most avoid "abnormal" children, but she was different.
She had been discharged just the week before after her monthly check-up. All values had been normal. Dr. Sanjivini had given hopes of reducing her dialysis volume and frequency. At almost 3000 rupees a day, it was a costly affair. Her parents had never spoken about the financial burden, even for them it must have been draining, 2 years of it. Apart from a visible weight loss they remained the same.
So the unexpected emergency call at 12.30 in the night shocked Sanjivini. Her father reported that she had been acting strange for a few days, now she was sluggish. As they wheeled her into the ER, Sanjivini tried to hide, but Madhu saw her. She opened her mouth and laughed. That was the last sound she made.
Convulsions overtook her. It took two attending doctors to control her enough to start an IV. Nothing worked. Due to her complicated history drugs could either not be given or had to be given in lower doses. That day they tried everything. The struggle lasted for 34 minutes. No one who was on call that night would forget the sight of the tiny body jerking after being hit by the defibrillator, or the siren call of the monitor or the flat line it traced for a long time.
Sanjivini would never forget that laugh. She had been always envious of the others. She had saved Madhu's life the first time and had been always kept outside the elite circle. She had never shared sweets, childish banter and giggles with her. But she had shared Madhu's last laugh.
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