Children of God

Varshini came back home yesterday. After 18 days in the ICU and 30 days in the hospital. Varshini is the 10 year old daughter of my very dear friends PK and Latha. Varshini used to suffer from epileptic seizures from her childhood. She has been in and out of hospitals due to her illness, and she came out stronger every time. Varshini attended Vidya Sudha a school meant for children with special needs, along with her mother. They took individual care according to the child’s need. They educated the mother also who had to continue the classes at home as well. This meant that Latha had to be with her daughter the whole day. The whole family rallied behind Varshini. Varshini’s sister long ago had learnt to take care of herself when her parents had to devote their time for Varshini. In due course Varshini had made tremendous progress. With her treatment and Latha's immaculate care,she never had an epileptic episode for nearly 3 years, so much so that we all believed that the worst was over. She had started attending regular school and within a short period had become the darling of the students and teachers alike.

On that fateful day, night to be precise, she had a tiff with her mother and refused to say good-night to her and covered herself with the rug. To tease her further she lowered her rug and said “Good night daddy” and went to sleep. Probably those were the last words she spoke in the last 1 month. Around 4 in the morning she started having seizures. The doctor who treats her is a little far off from their house, but they had an arrangement with another doctor near her house who knew her medical history, to give her first aid before she could be admitted to the hospital. The doctor was woken up and he promptly came to his clinic, as my friend reached there with his daughter. The initial drug of choice in such conditions is lorazepam, but unfortunately Varshini had developed hypersensitivity to the drug and on an earlier occasion had a respiratory arrest lasting a few minutes when this drug was administered by the same doctor. My friend reminded the doctor again about her hypersensitivity to Lorazepam, to which the doctor said, “I will take care, please wait outside”. No one is clear what happened afterwards. Varshini had a cardiac arrest and no one knows how long it was before she was revived. But it was long enough for her vital organs like the liver, kidney and brain to shut down. She was admitted in the paediatric ICU.

There she was invaded by peritoneal dialysis, ventilator to assist her breathing, a nasogastric tube for feeding and a urinary catheter to drain her urine. The links are to help you understand what the poor girl had to undergo. For 18 days she was attached to all these intrusions. She was put on a sedative so that she will not knock these machines around. She opened her eyes on the 8th day, but she was not able to talk or recognize anyone. She could only cry like a newborn to indicate her needs like hunger, thirst or even pain. The parents did everything to spark her memory; played her the songs she liked, read her stories, called her by pet names that she used to enjoy, touched her, and hugged her, but to no avail. To this day Varshini remains like that. There has been only a very slight improvement that we can at best call as wishful thinking. Whose fault is this? Who is responsible for putting a 10 year old through all this? Was it the doctor who gave her a wrong medication? Is it her Karma? Can she be called God’s child, but which parent would punish their children thus for whosoever’s mistake? WHO?

Varshini is a strong girl and I strongly believe that she will come back better than ever. With support from her parents who have gone through this whole ordeal bravely. And with wishes from well meaning people. Well-wishers like you. As Lord Tennyson said,”More things are wrought by prayers than this world dream of”, let us fervently trust that Varshini will bounce back to her normal self through our prayers. Our collective prayers. Believer or non believer, I entreat you to include Varshini in your prayers and wish her well.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family.