At the Horizon of Life and Death

The book is based on narratives based on the life time journey of the protagonist, Dr Anand, who since his teenage, was intrigued by the 'mystery surrounding death', the existence of spirits and souls and was shocked to know the 4000 years old cruel Hammurabi's code of medical regulation.

The stories span from his initial days in ER (emergency room), when faced with patients near death overcoming his fears, and chronicle his struggle in complex medicolegal scenarios over the next four decades.

Every day, Anand would witness patients sinking in front of his eyes. As a doctor true to his profession, he used to experience the divine exhilaration whenever he pulled his patients out from jaws of death. He worked amid weeping patients, heart wrenching cries of children, wailing mothers and silently sobbing fathers, all of them in the saddest mode of their lives. Patients, who look dead at one point, regain consciousness, open their eyes and communicate with their near and dear ones. A sense of gratitude and appreciation by patients provided enough reason for going on with the physical and mental rigors of the work.

This book is borne out of the sensitivities involved while dealing with patients facing death.

It comprises of stories that capture the pivotal moments in the treatment trajectory of the critical patients. It talks about the times that force the doctor to confront the saddest moments while battling a terrifying foe, the death monster alongside families' fear, gloom, indecisiveness and dilemmas about future, and saviour's own predicaments intertwined with medico-legal intricacies and consequent complex emotional interactions.

The situations depict 'the real issues' through 'fictional narrative'.

Diseases unmask the human fragility and hence the vulnerability that is intrinsic to the work of doctors. This vulnerability is exploited by many for their benefit - by 'media and celebrities' to sell their news and shows, by 'law industry' and 'industry's middlemen' to extract money.

The stories describe the unfortunate consequences- demoralization, expensive medical education, suicide by doctors, nurses' plight, assaults and medico-legal torment of health care workers in the present era. Needless to say, the law industry benefits enormously at the cost of medical profession.

But is this what the patients actually need? Would the entanglement of doctors in such a maze help the patients in real sense? No reward, if you win the match of life and death but a sword hanging if one were to lose? The patient will need to decide eventually, whether to be a consumer or remain a patient.

Being consumers may be a loss-making deal for the patients.

Dr Pankaj Kumar
MBBS. MD. Internal Medicine 1994
Diploma Health Management (NIHFW)
CCST EQ. (UK)
Worked at Medical College Rohtak
AIIMS Delhi, CMC Vellore
St Stephen's Hospital Delhi
Presently Director Critical Care
Fortis Hospital Shalimar Bagh
Delhi India-110088

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