A Doctor's Heart Sutra

"is there any problem doctor ?" a troubled mothers ask me during ward rounds... "hows are the reports ?(hows my child's blood report) another mom asks me. some even ask me to explain the counts... once in awhile I get a few mothers who are not bothered of whats happening around... and most of them are diagnosed with a psychiatry disorder. Ever clinic day I worry too much about the referrals we get from Mental health institution... these mothers a re inward patients who have post -partum depression or psychosis, some are known patients with psychiatry disorders which have aggravated after child birth. I am stressed and worried about these kids who end up with no proper care or love from their parents. Yes ! all most all of these mothers are single parents who are left after pregnancy by multiple partners. Why cant we have a legal process for these psychiatry patients to have a proper birth control method and follow up ? why cant we mend the laws to l...

"your tattoo looks interesting, what does it mean ? " I asked the foreign student who was sitting next to me during the lecture. She had a semicolon tattoo on her left arm. "don't you know what this means ?" she asked with widened eyes She told me her story with a brave smile. "I was growing up with my mother, who was a busy scientist who had a very little time to spend with me. I was a trouble maker at home and school and failed class a few times. when I was 15 I was into many violent acts and a my mother said I was a huge disappointment to her. I felt like killing my self. I did climb up to the roof top of the apartment building many many times but gave up walked to the railway path and still couldn't bear the feeling of losing a life time. I told these troubling, disappointing thoughts to a teacher and she helped me go for counselling and therapy. I survived and this tattoo reminds me of my survival " yes ! Life is a constant struggle...

A three year old was sitting beside the doctor’s table, outside the labor room. He was surprisingly calm and quiet. He seemed to enjoy the tea we had given him while his mother delivered her fourth child. He had no father or any known relative to take care of them. His mother was a psychiatric patient on regular follow up and treatment. He didn’t trouble us at all and never asked where his mom was. This little one was wearing the same old clothes that he wore when he came here few months back (We had seen him with the mother on her previous two admissions) and this mom, didn’t have any clothes for her new born either. The little fellow had a brown paper bag, which had stones, bottle caps and other junk, probably he picked up while coming to the hospital. These were his toys. These people collected the single use, plastic water bottles from us because it was the nearest thing to a toy they knew. They filled them with stones and pebbles to create rattles for babies. The nurse returned ...

Indu (pseudonym) was one of the permanent patients of our unit. She had nowhere else to go other than the orphanage which sheltered her. We took over her care, whenever she troubled her care takers. Keeping her in one place was hard as she had a habit of running away from every home that sheltered her. She became one of our unit’s heaviest burdens. When she was hospitalized, we had to keep an eye on her, as she was fond of wondering in corridors, outside hospital premises and suddenly went missing during visiting hours. She was in her twenties when she was diagnosed with her mental illness. She was good in her studies but couldn’t continue as her mental status worsened. On top of this she had no family support. Her mother who was treated for the same illness showed no interest in building a healthy relationship with her daughter. The efforts we took to create a good family support, failed as it was impossible to make the mother and daughter understand each other’s situation. They had...

Health Complications Which May Result in Female Workers Who Stand for a Longer Period of Time Dr. B.R.M. Samaratunga (M.D.) Women Workers who stands for longer hours at work place are prone to develop health conditions such as musculoskeletal disorders, varicose veins, heart and circulatory problems and pregnancy difficulties. The most frequently and commonly complained symptoms are discomfort, fatigue and swelling in the lower limbs. Standing hazards · Pain: o Physical pain – musculoskeletal disorders o Swollen and painful limbs mainly lower limbs. o Joint pains (increased risk of knee and him arthritis) o Neck and shoulder stiffness · Poor posture (and its effects) · Plantar fasciitis · Stretched Achilles tendon. Flat feet and heal spurs · Varicose veins · Poor circulation · Increased risk of carotid atherosclerosis and stroke · Pregnancy difficulties · Mental distress and depression which may result due to long term pain.  Varicose veins are a common complication of stan...

“Kids have a hole in their soul in the shape of their mother.. if a mother is unwilling or unable to fill that hole, it can leave a wound that can not be easily healed...” I see wounded children and adults... carrying those wounds around, infecting the lives that they share with. Time to time they tend to come back to recover what was missed and ignored... but sometimes mothers’ are too busy to look into their child's eyes and identify the pain they are in ! Some tend to forget that they can’t just leave their children at certain times of life, while some stick to their children and help them gain the best from their lives. I don’t see happy mothers, and I don’t see happy children.  When I posted this on face book.. on mothers day ! I did not get much of a response. this is the sad truth and the reality Yes! it’s a grey world but I can’t ignore the reality ! The reality in which many of us struggles to escape or forget.  I see mothers who have to juggle betwee...

….It takes only a few rotten minds to create hell in this country and we saw it happen for 30 years… Let’s call her Geetha. She was twenty year old, who was treated for the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). She was admitted to the emergency unit twice, following suicide attempts with drug overdose and ingestion of insecticides. “This dakta (‘doctor’ in her accent) treated me when I got shot in the battle last year,” Geetha starts her usual ranting every morning, when she sees me. She told me this even on the very first day that she saw me in the medical ward. I’ve already told her a number of times that I was a Sinhalese doctor, who lived in Colombo and never had been to the North, especially during the days of the final battle. She agrees with me momentarily, each time I explain this, but the very next day starts again with the same talk about me being a Tamil doctor who worked for the terrorists. “How could you switch sides like this?” sometimes she scolds me. “Geetha, I’ve tol...