Food for thought...

Thanks,

To all of you who visit this page and commen(d)t me on my blogs. Instead of forwarding it to a specific number of known email ids, I thought I'll post this here, for each one of you to read, and understand...


A LETTER TO 4000 CHILDREN WITH A SCAR ON THE CHEST

My Dear Children:

I have been planning to write this letter for quite some
time. Maybe I just waited for you all to grow up to understand what
I am trying to convey. The story goes back many years. When
God sent you to this world it was perhaps the best thing that had
happened to your parents. Every little nudges and kicks in your
mother's womb opened up a new world of happiness and expectations. Then
one day, a miracle happened. You were to begin a new journey.
From the warm, happy, secure world of your mother's womb to a world
that is cold and full of insecurities. Nevertheless, the joy that
your parents felt after this journey knew no bounds. They were
on top of the world. But, unfortunately, this happiness was very
short lived. That very day you started turning blue in colour.
The doctors had found a hole in your heart that shattered the
dreams of your parents. They were devastated and could not
understand why they were being punished in this way. They had no choice
but to accept the inevitable reality and decided to give you the
best possible medical care.
Before that they had to overcome two major hurdles. They
could not afford the cost of your heart operation and they could not
wait since you were turning blue every time you cried. I guess
this is a penalty you have to pay for being born in a third world
country.Yes, when you were ten days old you had a price tag on
your life. If your parents paid the price, they can have you, if not
you would have to go back to where you came from. Your mummy and
daddy went through phases of self-pity, denial, mutual accusations
and anger towards the society, which was indifferent to their
problems. Your daddy was most upset since he knew that the price tag on
your life was less than what his boss would spend on a Saturday
evening party. But that is life and one has to accept it. Time
was running out and your daddy was getting desperate until he came to
know about me. The first thing he told me when we met was "I heard
you love children". Yes, I love children and I have four of my
own. My profession is giving hope to people suffering from heart
diseases and giving them a chance to start life in a fresh new way.
I am essentially a technician who can cut and stitch people's
heart; they call me a heart surgeon.
When I met you first you were barely 10 days old, cuddled
in a warm blanket close to your mother's heart. Except for a bit of
rapid breathing and bluish nails on your finger, you looked like
an angel. I am sure you cannot remember but I asked you a
question "do you want to be my friend"? This is the question I ask all
the children I see. I did want to be your friend and I worked
so hard to gain your friendship. I clearly remember your mother's
face when she was handing you over to the operation theatre nurse.
She kissed you and looked at my face with an expression that she is
handing over her most precious possession to me; also with the
total confidence that I will take care of you. It was a
different sort of love triangle between your father, mother and myself with
you at the centre. We would have done any thing in this world to get
you back. It took me six hours of intense concentration to
operate upon your heart and so many sleepless nights before you started
smiling again. God was kind to you that time and you made a
marvelous recovery. It was a big day for your family when you were
being discharged from the hospital. Both your mummy and daddy
would have thanked me a million times before they left the hospital.
But they didn't have to tell me anything since I knew every world
what they wanted to say. Tears of joy rolled down their cheeks.
But you were blissfully unaware of what was going on clinging on to
your mother's chest. My eyes began to swell with tears and I turned my
face the other way since a cardiac surgeon is not supposed to cry.
Through the corner of my wet eyes I saw your face one more time
and I knew I found one more friend. Your friendship and love is the
only fee I expect for treating you.

As a heart surgeon I have performed more than 4000
operations on children like you suffering from heart disease. Most of
them came from poor families. Despite their backgrounds, I treat
all for free. I think this is the best way I can repay God who
has given me everything I wanted, a good family, a wonderful wife and
loving children. For me this world is such a happy place to live
in and in my own small way I strive hard to make it happy for others
around me who are not so fortunate.

You must be wondering what inspired me to take this path.
I guess, I became a doctor because of the recurrent illness of my
parents. My childhood was spent with the fear of loosing my mother.
My father who was a diabetic had multiple episodes of
diabetic coma. In the life of the nine of us God was a distant image and
his clear image was that of Doctor who could save the lives of our
parents. Another childhood incident left a lasting impression on my
young mind. I remember, it was a Saturday afternoon; I was
trying to build a car, I think, out of matchboxes and sticks, like
all the other children in my village. My mother was speaking to a
distant relative of ours in Bombay. This lady was telling my
mother about a particular surgeon who apart from saving her child's life
also offered his service completely free of cost. I could hear
my mother blessing the mother of that surgeon for giving birth to
such a wonderful person and ended up saying that this world is
still a wonderful place because of people like him.
That was the time I found the purpose to my life, the
purpose of brining happiness to all the children of this world. I
was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I was trained to
be a heart surgeon at Guy's Hospital, London. My colleagues
there called me an "operating machine" since I loved heart surgery.

I left England in 1989 to start a state-of-the-art heart
hospital called BM Birla Heart Research Centre at Calcutta. It was
a great experience to set up a heart hospital, which soon became
one of the best heart hospitals in India. And almost immediately
after we set up the research centre we started the pediatric cardiac
surgical facilities to take care of children suffering from heart
diseases. Little did I know that this centre was to rewrite medical
history? My mother at that time was living in a small town near
Mangalore.
It was my father's death anniversary and she spent almost
the entire day in the prayer room. In the evening, my sister who was
watching the news at the national network, all of a sudden screamed
out for my mother. My mother hurried to the living room to see
her son on TV with a nine day old baby who underwent a successful
open-heart surgery. He was the youngest baby at that point of time
in India to undergo a successful open-heart surgery. It was the
beginning of heart surgery on newborn babies in India. I guess at that
time many mothers too would have prayed for my mother's well being.

Let me tell you about another incident. Do you know the
definition of a paediatric cardiac surgeon? The dictionary says he
is a surgeon who specializes in the treatment of heart ailments
in children. A few years ago, when Mother Teresa suffered a
heart attack I was put in charge of her heart care. One day,
Mother, who at that point of time was convalescing in the intensive
care unit of the hospital, saw me examining a blue baby. After few
minutes of thought she turned towards me and said; "Now I know why
you are here. To relieve the agony of children with heart
disease, God sent you to this world to fix it". To my mind, this is the
best definition ever given of a paediatric cardiac surgeon and
perhaps the best compliment that I have ever received.


One day you will become an adult and probably a very
important member of our society. You will have lot of
responsibilities and commitments. All I ask you for is, can you spare few
moments of your precious time every day for someone who needs it?
And that too without expecting anything back in return. Do you know,
to save your life, a few hundred people worked sincerely without
expecting any remuneration other than the joy of making your family,
friends and relatives happy?

Dear children, we are all creation of the God and He is in
control of all the events happening in this world. Unfortunately
he is not supposed to be seen, heard or felt. So, he runs this
world using people like you and me. And when you do your work without
expecting anything in return, just for the joy of brining happiness
to others, that's when you'll realize it is not your hands, which do
the job, it is the hands of God.

Yours lovingly,
(Dr. Devi Shetty)

Its late in the night and as sleepy as I am, I just wanted to use this medium of mine to send this out to all of you. I know a lot of you don't like reading forwarded stuff like this but I couldn't resist. I already have a piece in mind to write here next... keep watching this space for more..