A Doctor's Heart Sutra

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...

Living among them, working in the heart of the north where people struggled to heal and hoped to survive – This is my story. “If you can’t speak Tamil , then you’d better pack your bags and leave!” the Consultant said in a blunt tone to the doctors who were newly-posted there. A few years ago, the sound of guns, bombs and aircraft filled the atmosphere of the North. Everything ended for good in May 2009, and now they are in the process of regaining their normal lives, even though most of it had been destroyed beyond repair by the brutal war. Yes, I wanted to serve in the North and it was the time that our country needed our help by whatever means possible. Despite the objections of my family, relatives and friends, I started my journey to the hospital at the other end of the country. Traveling to an area in the aftermath of a brutal war was not easy when there were, road blocks, checkpoints and warning tapes on either side of the roads where demining took place. Roads were all wrecked...

M y chest throbbed with immense pain while watching the movie” Ira handa yata,” Under the sun and moon. This movie reflected the 30 years of war that ruined the lives of millions in this country, and I felt it deeply as I was a victim of it since I was born and until I finished my medical degree. The tears of the living dead and the cries of the innocent had been reflected sharply throughout the film as I witnessed most of it myself during the time I served in an immediate post war area. The theme it carried not only bears a clear history of the war but also the humanity and its relativity towards the nation. It takes a lot of courage and kindness to look at one another with love and compassion even when one has lost almost everything he owned. “It’s so good that it all ended doctor” every single person I met, told me, that their lives are so much better, the children are safe and they’ve returned “home”. It was not all sunny and bright! Every day I come across hundre...