What did I learn from my visit to the Hospital ?

Recently, my mother had to be admitted to a hospital for over a week due to severe medical ailment. This was an emergency and had its share of panic.

Ironically, whenever I used to pass by the same hospital while commuting to my office every day, I use to utter out in great fear and frustration “This place is hell and scares me to death”. Little did I realize that I will soon be making a visit to the same place for over a week day in and out. Now that I have spent days and nights taking care of the daily chorus, it has turned out to be a lifetime experience worth sharing.

Here are some of the lessons I learnt from this episode: -

1.There are a lot more people fighting perennial battles than we thought: - It is human tendency to think “Why only me and my family?” that has to go through such tough situation. However, it was shocking for me to see several people suffering from life threating ailments for years and with little or no hope of recovery. After meeting the patients and their families, I realized that my situation was far better than most of the other families and I must be grateful in such situation.

2. It needs great courage to smile: - Life and death are indispensable part of every human journey. Observing your own relative in deep pain, knowing that they are in extreme suffering doesn’t bring smiles to your face at all. Instead, it brings tears, makes you sad, and intensifies your personal agony. In such situation, it needs great courage to smile and believe in yourself. We often talk about positive attitude and courage; the real litmus test is at the hospital when you deal with such situation.

3. Relations are made out of "common pain”: -We often talk about the importance of networking, influencing skills and what not in our day to day professional life. A hospital is a real ground for you to experience this. Nobody really cares about your status, your bank balance, the social appearance, your religion and cast, the number of gadgets that you are using, the outfits etc. It’s just the common pain and suffering that people share which brings them closer and make long term relations. It was an eye opener for me to be introduced to a family who’s relative was suffering from cancer and was in the last stage battling for life. The family was so concerned about my mother’s health despite their own situation. This was one of the best humanly gesture I have ever experienced.

4. Hope is the only medicine: - While you have the best of medical equipment’s predicting and analyzing pulse rate, blood pressure, vital stats and other parameters every single minute and doctors visiting at the ICU round the clock, there are a few things which are beyond their control. The only medicine that you hope will work is “HOPE”. This is the time when you need to have faith and hope for the best. It may work or may not, but there is nothing you can do beyond.

5. There is no better situation to learn effective Time Management: - While you may be sad, angry and frustrated with your situation, you still need to manage your daily routine. You just cannot take things off your plate and focus only about the medical situation. You need to run for medicine, arrange food, attend to several relative and friends calling to know the status and manage your job / business. This situation brings the best out of you and makes you learn how to prioritize and manage your time in the best possible way.

To summarize, the past week has been a wonderful life experience for me. I am glad that my mother is back home and is on the path to recovery.

If you have any feedback / comment to share, you can write to me directly – [email protected] Views expressed are personal.

#lifelessons #kamalvatnani #learning