Dying with dignity

Col Narinder Singh Dahiya (retd)

Last week I had the opportunity to pay a visit to inquire about the well-being of Ms Shobha (name changed), a widow of a veteran admitted in a private hospital at Sonipat (Haryana). She is almost 90 years old and is drawing a family pension. She is a beneficiary of the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS). She has been bed ridden for almost a year because of a number of ailments. Her frail form rests gently under a thin hospital blanket, providing some comfort to her weakened state. The room is quiet, except for the soft hum of medical equipment monitoring her vital signs and providing necessary support. The rhythmic sound of the heart monitor and the gentle rise and fall of her chest reminded me of the delicate balance between life and the unknown.

Her once healthy body is frail, ravaged by illness and time. Wrinkles, once the roadmap of her life's journey, now deepen with the weight of suffering and weariness. Her arms are bruised blue and swollen because of numerous injections, pricks for medical tests and cannula fixtures. The hospital room, once a place of hope and healing, has become a prison where she feels trapped, stripped of her dignity, autonomy and independence. Her vibrant spirit and energy have been sapped by the constant battle against pain and the indignity of her circumstances.

Her weary eyes, clouded with pain and fatigue, gaze listlessly into the distance. It seems that she is yearning for respite from the relentless torment that she has suffered. Every breath is a struggle for her. She probably silently prays for her elusive death and pleads with the medical staff to release her from the agony that life has become for her. The hospital staff and her close relatives try unsuccessfully to raise her spirits but their words lack conviction and provide her no respite.

It is a well-maintained hospital as per Tier-II city standards but some things about the hospital were very conspicuous and out of the ordinary. It is 200-bed hospital but has a strangely large number of Intensive Care Units (ICU) as compared to the normal wards. The hospital has more than 40 ICU beds. Obviously, the charges for ICU beds are substantially higher as compared to normal hospital beds but the difference in the medical care was not much for most of the patients admitted in the ICU ward. Strangely, most of the patients admitted in the hospital were very old /senior citizens. The third thing that was striking about the hospital was that almost all patients admitted in the hospital were ECHS/CGHS/ESIC beneficiaries. There were hardly any cash paying patients either in the Outpatient Department or even