My tribute to Mr. Vijay Singh Nakoti who died in ICU due to doctors negligence.
–Written by Rakesh Manchanda in 2005.
A revisit to my past-(2000-5),reminds me of my extensive tours and travel plans in India for business, sale of Life Saving Devices. Ordinary overloaded buses ,shared jeeps, tireless rides in the difficult village terrain kept me engaged and updated. Village haat (baazar) ,new customers and new friendship always kept me rich and gave me a cheerful experience. Rubbing shoulders with `Aam admi`-the common man and joyful journeys kept me fit and alert at ground zero. As a learning student at the end of any hard day work my balance sheet of experiences and its self audit was important.
I used to put my experiences straight in Hindi as `Muhhoobat Nafrat ka khatha`- a Love Hate account.
Doctors and most hospital administrators liked me not because was of my expensive & `branded` business solutions but because of my blunt attitude & my straightforward professional suggestion. Helping and informing my new business partners how to refill their emotional bank was my passion. Instead of getting trapped via pundit ji or an astrologer or an expensive doctor I advised my clients to control their own future. This self communication and business `funda` about your own irreversible day and actions against all odds was never easy. Surgeons who knew me and understood the importance of my scientific information asked me to meet them inside the restricted Operation Theatre. Then there were hospital administrators who at times hounded me and hated me when they used to see me removing my mask while coming out of the operation theatre. Their remarks were loud and very clear :
`You are not an expert`.
Yes ! I never claimed to be an expert but a student of life and its safety.
It required a daily skill to polish presentation. To compete in the market. A chiselling attitude to Stay-in-Alive. My vision was simple : Never run after the business; the business shall run after you. Control the environmental cycle the business with goodwill shall start knocking your doors.
So what did I pour daily in my love hate cycle ? On my love list the philanthropic contacts of people was endless. It included young and old doctors, technicians who used to share free medicine, free ECG camps, free blood sugar diagnosis for poor at week ends. Then there were promoters of companies importing household blood sugar test devices, Red Cross Society motivators, Blood pressure digital set promoters, Oxygen concentrator importers, Nebuliser sellers, Medical representatives, writers, journalists and of course motivated free blood donors.
Management tricks, I learned fast and `free of cost`. I never got any formal expensive training in any renowned institute. It is a different experience that I keep reading management stories which helped me to polish my business and social skills.I recollect in 2002, I was invited to conduct workshops in Army and ITBP hospitals based in Kashmir Valley and they were wise enough to send the bullet proof closed jeeps to pick me up from the Airport. My stay for a week and outings was pre- planned with enough security but my well wishers in Delhi never wanted me to visit Kashmir the border state with Pakistan haunted by terrorists.
My organised and unorganised `capacity building` and `life safety` workshops and subsequent presentations was my daily work .Dwelling on subjects like if you get your finger chopped in an accident what needs to be done was religious ? How the accidental `divorced finger say in a factory which was chopped off needs to be handled ? How this separated finger can be carefully refixed ?-Provided the survival time between the chopped finger or a hand or a foot is managed and within next few hours it is taken to the operation theatre and surgery is done within the recommended time limit.
As a team leader and as a promoter of scientific devices which can be used by non medical persons, I was engaged in promotional stories. Few new and old stories used to revolve around the organs like Heart, Lungs, Brain, Eyes, Ears, Fingers. How these vital organs work in strict coordination as a team ? What if the organs become arrogant, compete, corrupt and start in-house fight and divorce each other ? What if they stop supporting each other ? My reverse engineering lessons learned in the market are still incomplete and need a daily correct support.
I remember the day when one of my customer ; a renowned cardiologist of ex- PM-India and HOD-Cardiology-AIIMS- Prof.S.C. Manchanda called me . His advise was to meet and collaborate with a new NGO involved in donation of body organs like heart, limbs, kidney, liver, eyes, ears. This new social collaborator in my business workshops gave me new ideas ,new stories and new business plans with new permutations & combinations. This NGO team was trying hard to motivate people to donate their organs. As per my crude standards the team leaders were weak in communication and they were not able to convert the God fearing north Indian as possible donors of their organs after death. Traditionally in India after `natural death` people do not entertain the idea about their bodies to be cut open and post-mortem done.
After death the organs today are safely removed by the intervention and at the cost of the said NGO or hospital cost and are then safely transferred to the recognised Donor organ banks. Later it gets audited by transparent list of doners. and beneficiary list chosen for implants also needs to be matched. Audit and transparency in this holy sensitive work is a must. Donation of organ always taught me the importance of time management which demands quick decisions within the time frame. If the eyes of the donar are not removed and transplanted within four to six hours after the biological death the donation exercise and its social audit is deemed as useless.
Unfortunately this challenging team work of organ collection and donation failed. Promoters could not meet their target of winning atleast one donor each week. One fine morning the team vanished without informing me. Suddenly I realised that I used to scold and tease the promoters a lot. This NGO never contacted me again. Then after several years a well wisher rang me up in my father`s house in DehraDun from Calcutta and asked me to switch on the Television. I saw several channels giving coverage of a heroic NGO organisation works called Ganadarpan. For days together few national channels endlessly discussed the increasing list of several lakh organ doners. This was discussed along with a sad occasion and the last rites of the ex-CM of WB, Shree Jyoti Basu who had donated all his organs via this NGO. Dead body and brain for research students was preserved for several days. I was happy to see this success story of Organ donation on National television channels. This religious work of donation which got written off from my memory and from my selfish list of relationships was a self reminder that I was a lazy team leader who needs a lot of improvements. Recently Pak. PM-Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that he shall donate his liver after his death. Organ donation still needs Asian Poster Boys like Kamala Hassan(Bollywood star) to promote and make the donors generous.
A TNN report says around 3000 patients die each day due to no generous attitude of Indian organ donors. Indian donation score card today is 0.08 donors per million population while a small country Spain has 35.1 organ donors per million. According to Union Health Minster of India, GulamNabi Azad only 38,000 eyes are collected annually against more then one lakh Corneas replacement appetite in India.
My web of business stories at times got inspired by Hollywood movies like `Baby Day Out`. Source of one new story was inspired from Indian Epic `Arjun in mahabharat` who gifted to Bheesaham Pitama a pillow and a bed made by shooting arrows in the battlefield. Position of galaxy of arrows and the uplifted chin of the victim was such positioned that it helped the victim to stay alive for several days. It is the lifted position of the chin that did the trick to delay the death. Just as the arrows were never removed the modern science teaches tell us why not to remove the knife from the unconscious stabbed victim till the expert help is not reached. Motive behind this exercise is to delay and if not defeat the arriving chariots of Yumraj the Hindu God of Death.
Why a pillow should not be used under the head of an unconscious victim ? Why a pillow or support with height under the foot instead of support under the head is better while saving the life of an unconscious person was a challenge ? Such myths, stories and epics helped me to make my scientific presentations interesting. Silent self learning and my experience was also getting rich.
Paramilitary doctor friends from forces(Army, Navy, Airforce and police) enjoyed sharing with me the valuable X-ray reports of soldiers reported fit but were still carrying compromised bullets inside the body. Bullets inside the body are left untouched or are not removed. The is wisely done by team of doctors who do not want to risk and unplug the wound. A risk in such a situation can keep the team organs dis-united.
Unfortunately at times when you find a victim in ICU struggling to keep his own `team organs` like heart lungs and brain in shape with help of external oxygen and ventilator and then when you hear that most of the doctors and nurses go on Dusshera Holiday and leave the victim alone then there is something seriously wrong in our collective team work. Consumer pressure and culture in this direction is already weak. Why we still hesitate to question powerful hospitals, bankers, insurance, police, transporters, Netas, Abhinetas ? Such hesitation or pitfalls if any should remind us about our own lack of confidence and experience in applying the magic of correct team work and enjoying the Win Win results.
During my search for solutions, I try to learn and practise to shoot problems and not persons. I aways tried to look for what is wrong before looking into who is wrong. This helped me to nurse relations for long and protect them.
Day to day speed breakers in a vertical business team like assistant-boss coordination, trouble shooting skills, relationship magic (with or without gifts) which I acknowledge each day still tease me. They need collective improvement. Alone I cannot force a change. Business by heart or `business by mind` or by both needs more exploring. A fun filled light hearted work culture as religion is another challenge still untouched by me and several others.
How to cheer and motivate teams during sports event, during industrial production, blood donation and religious gathering still needs more time. Time is the villain and it is just vaporising fast. Are we ready ?Are we ready to build a new day, a new love list with no hate, a new task , a new solution at our daily work sites ?
The choice with time to live and celebrate humanity is all yours !
Note : This craft is written in Public Interest and its contents can be reused, quoted by any reader as and when required in his administrative workshops. Those critics who wish to invest time are requested to send me technical corrections, and suggestions if any. I wish to thank my colleagues in Grafax Cotton Sarl and Grafax cotton Pvt Ltd for giving me an opportunity to help me visit my past-2000-2005.
Rakesh Manchanda,
B-5,Gharonda Apartments,
Shrestha Vihar, Delhi-92, Ph: 011-22145369.
rakeshmanchanda 