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Ganga Prem Hospice Patients
Baisakhi Devi
.....the tourists and the
locals going about this business of fun and livelihood
respectively, blissfully unaware of the suffering
and pain that exists in their midst.
The river-side pilgrimage town of Rishikesh has
been abuzz with pilgrims going on the chaar dhaam
yatra. As cars, buses and jeeps coming from the
sweltering plains of India line the narrow road
going up to the Himalayan shrines of Badrinath
and Kedarnath, one newly purchased vehicle makes
it way down the narrow and very quiet road which
branches off the Badrinath highway, to the leprosy
colony of Bhrampuri. It is a little colony of
small huts, with picturesque green hills all around.
As the vehicle comes to a halt, the passengers
are greeted cheerfully by three women sitting
outside their huts. Their faces light up with
broad smiles as they greet the visitors –
a nurse, a driver, and a hospice worker, who have
come on a palliative care visit. It is hard to
tell at the outset, which among the three women
is in need of medical attention, but on a closer
look, one can see that one of these very happy
women has very thin hair, a temporary side-effect
of chemotherapy. The patient’s name is Baisakhi
Devi and she has been a resident of the leprosy
colony for twenty years, ever since she was afflicted
with leprosy and had to come down from her village
in the mountains for treatment.
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| Baisakhi Devi
(left) welcomes the nurse (right) |
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“I’ve
been waiting for my friends to come”,
Baisakhi Devi says to the nurse. The Ganga
Prem Hospice team is led into a small room
which has one charpoy and some gunny bags
on the floor for chairs. Soon the other two
women also come in and sit down as the Hospice
nurse asks after the health of Baisakhi Devi
who’s suffering from lymph node cancer. |
Her smiling face does not betray the fact that
a month ago, there was little chance of her survival
as her advanced cancer prevented any food intake
and put her through unbearable pain. After three
rounds of chemotherapy at a Dehradun hospital
coupled with the love and support of the Ganga
Prem Hospice palliative care team, Baisakhi Devi’s
condition has improved considerably. The huge
tumour on the right side of her neck has receded
and this has allowed the patient to have a semblance
of a more normal life. “Everybody has to
die, but I’m glad I don’t have to suffer
so much pain now”, says the patient. The
Hospice team visit is frequently punctuated by
hugs and embraces between the patient and the
nurse, who meet more like long-lost friends, than
as nurse and patient. The nurse checks whether
the patient’s protein powder can’s content
is seeing a reduction. Her blood pressure and
that of one other woman is measured by the nurse
who offers to massage Baisakhi’s hair with
oil if she wants. The patient explains the throbbing
pain that she feels and when the nurse asks her
about her symptoms, she affirms that she feels
giddy sometimes.
It is the child like innocence of the sixty-five
year old woman that endears her to one and all.
Baisakhi Devi has no complaints even though for
many years she has stayed away from her family,
down in Rishikesh in a leprosy colony, deserted
by her family and ostracized by the world outside.
She has worked hard making rugs out of cotton
wool, like the rest of the people in the colony
do for a living. Yet, she does not complain.
| “I
have nothing to give to you, except for my
blessings.…”, the patient says to
the Hospice team, which was with her as she
went through chemotherapy, sponsoring her
medical treatment cost, ferrying the patient
to the hospital, and draining the pus from
her incision wound after biopsy.“My neighbours
said I would not survive”, Baisakhi says
remembering the time when the lymph node tumour
was sucking all life out her. |
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| Baisakhi Devi
when she came to GPH the first time |
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.After an hour of animated conversation, the
Hospice team is given a warm send off with a gift:
corn on the cob. The next day, the Hospice team
will be picking up Baisakhi Devi for her trip
to the monthly Hospice clinic. As the car winds
its way back up the narrow road, the mobile phone
starts to pick up the network signals again. The
noises of the town resume: the market, the traffic,
the tourists and the locals going about this business
of fun and livelihood respectively, blissfully
unaware of the suffering and pain that exists
in their midst.
You can help.
Kartik
On looking closer we can
see the deformation of one leg which is caused
by untreated bone cancer.
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| Kartik at the
GPH cancer clinic in May 2010 |
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Kartik
is a lovely looking little boy with beautiful
large eyes. He’s playful and affectionate
but as he trys to run after the other children
he is hampered by a limp. On looking closer
we can see the deformation of his right leg
which is caused by untreated bone cancer.
The cancer has spread to the back portion
of Kartik’s little body and he has metastasis
in the lungs. Kartik is terminally ill. |
He is brought to the Ganga Prem Hospice clinic
by his grandparents as his father is mentally
challenged and his mother is busy with her eight
month old second son. Kartik’s grandfather,
the only wage earner in the family, works as a
porter at the unfrequented Rishikesh railway staion.
The family have spent much of their meagre income
on fruitless journies to far off hospitals, cancer
centres and alternative therapists.
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the family found Ganga Prem Hospice they received
a great deal of solace. Dr Dewan has advised
them not to spend any more money searching
for a cure and the GPH counsellor, Sarojini
Murthy, helps the family to understand the
prognosis. Sarojini, Anil Gupta and Sicily
Sebastion, the Hospice nurse, make regular
visits to the family. |
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| Kartik with his
grandparents and Anil Gupta (left) |
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Kartik has always been afraid of doctors and
nurses but the GPH team have made them selves
very welcome with the small gifts of sweets and
toys which they take on each visit. Pooja Dogra
visited many toy shops near her home and told
them Kartik’s story. The toys which the shops
donated were brought to Rishikesh by Dr Dewan
and Pooja, along with medicines and other necessities
for the clinic. At the moment Kartik does not
suffer too much pain and Ganga Prem Hospice is
providing analgesics and Ayurvedic medicine for
the itching which he experiences at night as well
as nutritional supplements to keep up his strength.
The Home Care team will be there to support him
and his family as the time may become more difficult
in the not too distant future.
Update on Kartik
(July)
The roundness of Kaartik’s baby face is
gone. Three months after Kaartik first came to
Ganga Prem Hospice, already in the terminal stages
of the disease, the four-year old has lost a lot
of weight and is growing weaker everyday. His
pain symptoms are under control now with paediatric
analegesic medications prescribed by the Ganga
Prem Hospice oncologist.
Kaartik’s bone cancer has metastasized to
the lungs and his reports shows that there is
big lesion in his right lung. The constantly increasing
pain had made the child feverish, irritable and
drastically reduce his diet. With analgesics,
Kaartik is having a less painful time although
he does not play so much anymore and mostly lies
down.
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| Kartik with his
mother receives the gifts from Anil |
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The
Ganga Prem Hospice volunteers have been visiting
Kaartik regularly. A friend from Netherlands
sent some toys for the child and on a recent
visit, Kaartik played with the toys that were
brought for him. His little eleven-month old
brother also likes to join in. The family
is sad but is very loving towards the child,
taking care of his needs, and reporting his
symptoms to the Hospice team for any change
in treatment advised by the oncologist. |
You can help.
Sadhu Arjun Nath
Sadhu Arjun Nath
was one of Ganga Prem Hospice’s terminally
ill cancer patients who is remembered by the Hospice
team and doctors at the Himalayan Institute as
somebody who never complained and always remained
peaceful despite his life threatening disease.
Sadhu Arjun Nath first
came to the Ganga Prem Hospice clinic in April
2009, with complaints of persistent cough and
chest pain. He had been wrongly told by a local
doctor that he had Tuberculosis. The fifty four
year old destitute sadhu was diagnosed by Dr Dewan
as suffering from Bronchogenic Cancer. The disease
was already beyond the stage of curative treatment.
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| Arjun Nath's humble
shelter near Lakshman Jhula |
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With
the patient possessing no financial means
and having only a makeshift shelter to live
in, the responsibility of giving him palliative
care and ensuring his general wellbeing was
taken on by Ganga Prem Hospice. The patient’s
medicines, food, clothing, commuting expenses,
palliative radiotherapy and chemotherapy charges
were provided for by the Hospice.
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Whether Arjun Nath
needed to travel to the Himalayan Institute Hospital
in Jolly Grant for treatment, or needed to be
fed when he was too ill to cook for himself any
longer, Sarojini Murthy, the Hospice’s palliative
care coordinator, was always there to support
him. Arjun Nath, with his simple and non-fussy
ways, endeared himself to the doctors at the hospital
at Jolly Grant and to the Hospice team. He readily
agreed to undergo the five week radiotherapy and
chemotherapy sessions and trusted his doctors
and carers completely.
During his last days,
he openly discussed with Sarojini Murthy what
he wanted after he died. He said that no one had
to be informed in the event of his death but that
if it was possible he would like his fellow sadhus
to be given a meal in his memory. When Sarojini
asked him if he wanted to be cremated or be given
jal samaadhi (where the body is put in the river,
as is the custom for Sadhus), he unassumingly
left it to Sarojini to decide by saying, “Whatever
is convenient for you.” Even in death, Arjun
Nath was neither complaining, nor demanding.
The day before
he passed away he had expressed a simple wish
to eat apples but in the the night before Sarojini
could get him some apples, he died of sudden Hemoptysis.
On the sixteenth day ceremony of his last rites,
fittingly, apples were lovingly distributed by
two of Ganga Prem Hospice volunteers, Teri K and
Ashley Quinn, both hospice workers from the US.
Sadhu Arjun Nath’s
death in his very modest shelter by the road side
was quick. For two days before his death, he told
a Ganga Prem Hospice volunteer who brought him
food cooked by Sarojini, that he was not hungry
anymore. He died on the night of 12th December.
His death was very sudden and he did not suffer
much during his last moments. Arjun Nath had been
well cared for during the last nine months of
his life, since his advanced lung cancer disease
was first diagnosed. During his last days, when
it was winter in Rishikesh, the Hospice provided
him with blankets and warm clothing so that he
could protect himself from the cold even though
he lived by the roadside in a very inadequate
shelter. Arjun Nath needed inpatient hospice facilities
in the final stages, but in the absence of these
facilities, the Hospice did its best to ensure
he still had some comfort in the form of an assured
supply of cooked food, warm clothes, pain relieving
medicines, and kind carers to look after him.
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During the days
following his demise, Sarojini arranged
for a lamp to be kept burning in his humble
shelter, as is the tradition after the death
of a sadhu. One of Arjun Nath’s fellow
sadhus was given the necessary supplies
so that he could lovingly do this service.
On 30th January 2009, the 16th day after
Arjun Nath’s death, a bhandaara (traditonal
feast) was organised by Ganga Prem Hospice,
to honour the patient’s last request.
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| Poor sadhus eating
at Sadhu Arjun Nath's feast |
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Near to the hut where
Arjun Nath lived, the feast was arranged for 35
sadhus, many of who knew Arjun Nath personally.
Sarojini Murthy organised the meal and purchased
the food the previous day, entrusting the provisions
to a sadhu who was a close friend of Arjun Nath.
Prayers were held in Arjun Nath’s memory
and the food was neatly prepared and set aside
for the feast. Apples
brought by Ganga Prem Hospice volunteers, Ashley
and Teri, were distributed. Some dakshina (ceremonial
token money offering to Sadhus) was given to the
Sadhus but as there were many more Sadhus ( 63)at
the feast than the expected number of invitees,
Teri, very generously gave the dakshina to the
sadhus who had not been expected
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| Arjun Nath's photo
at the feast given in his memory |
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Sadhu Arjun’s
photo decorated with flowers and placed
beneath a nearby tree smiled sweetly out
at the sadhus enjoying his last gift to
them.
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Madhu’s Story
‘She suffered great
pain, fever, malnutrition, weakness and inconsolable
depression.’
Madhu is a single mother. When she was diagnosed with cancer there was no one to turn to. Her only son, in his early twenties, struggled to earn enough money for her treatment. He is unqualified and could only earn a little wage. He needed to borrow a lot of money to pay the fare to take his mother to the cancer facility far away from their home. More money was needed to stay and eat in a strange town. The cancer treatment was expensive and so they took the minimum treatment - as much as they could afford. They returned home to their debts and, after a little while, to reoccurrence of the cancer, reoccurrence of the need for treatment and reoccurrence of despair.
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