That haunting expression, which was a mix of surprise and ecstasy, has stayed etched into my memory over the years. At times when I feel overburdened with clinical, academic, and administrative responsibilities, it is that expression that keeps me going. It was way back when I had joined my department as a newly minted psychiatrist. Working in a public healthcare setup, our workload was already high with a huge OPD footfall, and the number of psychiatrists were too low.
To add to our woes, all the administrative work of running a Mental Hospital had to be overseen by our small team of doctors. Work-life balance was still a term that had not caught on in those years. Managing so many roles in a single job resulted in fatigue and burnout among most of our team members. Yet there was one thing that kept us going – our resolution to do something for the grim state of mental health in our society.
One incident that comes to my mind while I think of my yesteryears is when an unknown patient was brought to us by an NGO with the help of the police and court orders. The patient had been living the life of a destitute and had long matted hair that harboured lice; his skin showed scars from all the struggles he had seen. We admitted the patient, and the first thing our dedicated nursing staff did was to maintain his hygiene. Despite our repeated attempts at establishing rapport, we were not able to do so, as his laconic speech would not yield a single complete sentence.
But as our management progressed, his speech began to find words that had been lost for years, and we were able to elicit information regarding his origins. Subsequently, our social workers, in alliance with the local police, were able to trace his family members, which included a wife, son, and daughter-in-law. The son visited us as the news reached him. The mixture of surprise and ecstasy is something that I have not been able to forget. Surprise, because the family members had given up on their search for their loved one after seven years; ecstasy, because what could have been better than finding a father who had long been presumed dead.
Over the years, I have witnessed more moments like these, and this is what keeps me going through my days of struggle. Other branches may have their charm of adrenaline rush and saving human lives. I take pride in saving families.
Dr. Vijay Niranjan
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
MGM Medical College, Indore
