On the Oozing Blood

There was a patient in the Pediatrics ICU, who was well known to all of us who underwent the one week posting there, mainly because she's been there for weeks, if not months. Her case notes were 6 to 7 inches thick, and one could take the whole morning to read through it had there be no summary attached.

So the short stint stay I had in P.ICU, I came to know about her story. She had an obstructed bile tract since birth, but it was corrected with a surgery before it complicated further. But the correction was only able to hold up to so long when she started to bleed spontaneously 5 years ago. Surgeries were performed, and she would be well for a couple of years, before she started to bleed again. Then she'd undergo more surgeries. This time, when she passed motion, fresh blood drip after the feces. And she'd literally pass blood trough her anus.

And she underwent another operation. The surgeon did endoscope to find out where the source of the bleeding was, but they couldn't find any, so they blindly embolize the whole place with the hope it would stop the bleeding. But a few hours after she came out from the surgical theatre, she wet her bed again, in blood. In one day alone, she'd had 2 packs of blood going in from her hands. If it's a good day, she won't be bleeding. Otherwise, whatever blood goes in, comes out from her anus. Or the surgical site.

Last I heard, the surgeons too, had no idea what else to do. And they were discussing another operation to bypass the whole liver entirely.

Everyday I went to the ward, I'd hear a faint volume of Buddhism chanting. Her mother was holding her hand and lied next to her ailing daughter, eyes all swollen from the crying. There's only so much we could hope for. And there's only so much we could pray for...

My sincere wishes to her well-being...