11th January to 19th January 2024
Things were going so well last time I wrote on this blog . We’d had such a good talk with Sekar and with a few other good friends. However somewhere along the way- actually as he was walking up the steps into the government school on Tuesday 9th- Andy grazed his leg. It didn’t hurt much and he took little notice of it. Early the next morning he woke up feeling hot and confused. He seemed to have a raised temperature. For most of Wednesday he did a lot of sleeping and we cancelled lunch in Thutitangel with Selvi. In the early hours of Thursday he again woke and was clearly very poorly, with a fever and dehydration which was making him confused and weak.
Alarming as this was for us both, it would have been so much worse without the helpful staff of Ruhsa, one of whom was on night duty and came quickly when I rang him. He called the doctor for the campus, Dr Prashanth, who is our neighbour. In short order we were on our way to CMC in an ambulance. We went immediately to A and E where a huge number of young medics were milling about. Andy was seen very quickly, the Ruhsa doc having contacted them ahead of our arrival. I answered questions about his medical history many times over to a succession of doctors. Eventually a very competent-seeming woman doctor who was obviously a senior medic spoke sternly to get someone to fix up a fluids drip asap. I relaxed a little as it had seemed important to me to get this going!
The end result of all this was that Andy was admitted to a single room with en suite bathroom.
In A and E
Andy and I installed in Room 611 for the next 9 days.
Andy’s attached for the first several days to a drip of fluids and another one for antibiotics. My space is that brown bench. It is expected in an Indian hospital that a family member will stay with the patient to help with care. It was hard ( to the touch, not difficult!) but I did manage quite a good few hours of sleep.
Over the days we were constantly in touch with Allan at Ruhsa who sent a gofer ( Chandravanan or Chinnathambi) every day to be helpful and they certainly did make things easier for me. In addition we had more or less daily visits from very concerned Balaji and on several days from Selvi plus friends of Selvi. It was very comforting and touching to be so well looked after, though of course as we have experienced here so often, the constant presence of people and especially their need to ply us with lots of home cooking, can feel oppressive to us Brits who are used to more privacy. There is no doubting the warmth, concern and kindness that our old friends feel for us.
Balaji helping Andy do his short walk- being his walking frame..
Whilst we were in Vellore the important spring/ harvest festival of Pongal took place. We have experienced this many times over the years. It means yet more cooking of special dishes ( eg sweet Pongal rice in a special Pongal pot) ; drumming especially in the evenings; firecrackers; temple visits and puja prayers. We could hear it outside the windows from our sixth floor room.
The standard of care we had in the hospital was absolutely excellent. There were so many staff, cleaners, nurses, doctors, physios, catering staff, all of them so smily and efficient. Of course such care does not come cheap and the ordinary not well off folk we know would never be able to pay. They have to make do with a government hospital.
Eventually the elegant smily reassuring Dr Annanaran, in charge of Andy’s case, declared he could be discharged so now, Friday 19th, we are back at the guest house in Ruhsa. We should have flown back to the Uk on 16th, but have rescheduled f for Wednesday 24th. Fingers crossed for that. A quiet weekend we hope, ahead of us…
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