Ever wondered at the helplessness of future, looking into the eyes of the present with tiny palms stretching out asking for a gasp of breath? Ever wondered at the cooing babbles fading into silence, a screeching silence that tears apart the breasts of wailing mothers and hurling the fathers into an abyss of despair and gloom? As these questions are asked this dreaded wonder turns into a shocking reality as we see such incidents happening just in our neighborhood in the only hospital meant to be providing tertiary health care for the infants. As the numbers swell our helplessness grows more helpless, while as somewhere else it erupts out into an apoplectic voice whereas somewhere else it turns out to be a golden opportunity to build fortunes.
Alas! Everyone has been sleeping over the sinister walk of death through the corridors of this hospital that nurses the little angles. As fatalists we often attribute it to the will of God, which undoubtedly it is, yet the theory of cause and effect makes us brood over certain parameters, primarily based on introspection. The basic question that arises amidst the voices are rising around from every nook and corner of the valley regarding paucity of health care facilities is did we need the deaths of over a thousand infants, since last year to shake ourselves out of slumber and cry ourselves hoarse. Are we such a dead people that we saw our progeny getting wiped off just for the lack of responsibility? It ultimately settles down to that. Every thing right from general hygiene, proper sanitation, sub standard medicines, and above all a callous approach of the professionals involved summarizes itself into a dead nation. With intelligence networks so strongly in place literally tracking everyone like a shadow, did the deaths in such large numbers go unnoticed? The question would haunt the responsible people like a nightmare for sure and demand an answer. Why after all everyone was sleeping over the tragic deaths of the infants. Were there issues more important that this one found a place on the back-burner?
Taking a look around the world we see how carefully human lives are handled especially in the hospitals. Thanks to technology life saving has become easier and complications have become less difficult to manage. So why do the medics in this place seem so redundant. Whereas when flaunting personal new gadgets like high end phones, digital palm tops, laptops with high speed internet the medics do not stay behind any other moneyed illiterate. The technology could well have been used for saving innocent lives. And while the concerned authorities move in the corridors well protected, masked the children and their wards suffocate in the retching smell emanating from the blocked latrines just adjacent to their beds. What a confluence of the state of the art technology and the extreme primitiveness, certainly anachronism at its peak where Time certainly must be traveling through these corridors confused at its own identity, whether it is a dark past or a flashing future.
Questions are many, and fixing responsibilities are difficult however blaming is easy. Patients would blame the doctors, doctors would yell upon the patients, the management would be the target of both the doctors and the patients, the management would blame the government the government would in turn retort and also point its fingers at the centre who would in turn take everyone to task and the blame game would continue to make rounds of course sans a recourse. The fact is that every one of us is at fault. The government for not taking a review periodically, the management for not reporting shortcomings and lacunae, the doctors for not innovating, and the patients and their wards for not cooperating with the hospital authorities in maintaining the sanitation of the hospital wards and bathrooms, and the general public as well for over crowding hospitals on the pretext of visiting relative and friends and not adhering to the timelines set for the purpose. It is time for everyone to hand our heads in shame for being responsible for the negligence that lead to the deaths of the little angels.
Though there are some heartening announcements regarding upcoming of new facilities the fact remains that unless the things are build for the purpose of maintaining upgraded statuses at these facilities they would soon be rendered obsolete given the time passes swiftly and new technologies take place of the existing ones quite rapidly. And when we have a look at ourselves we have unfortunately been complacent with our uninspiring, customary and uninventive ways of life. That is the primary reason why we have lagged behind.
The onus falls upon all of us but those at the helm of affairs are more answerable. A parent whose child is battling life and death is not concerned about hospital management or governance. The only thing that a parent wants a sympathetic look from a medic, one that assures that everything will be alright. On the contrary there have been innumerable reports when infants are lying in the corridors with no one bothering to take a look, what results would building of new facilities bring? Something more than mere erecting buildings needs to be done. We all need to take a new look at life and value its importance. We need to know the significance of the life of a new born baby. And the hands handling them are no less than angelic albeit if with responsibility and not like in the existing scenario where precious lives are so easily given up.
The pain associated with all these neonatal deaths would not be erased for a long time, however positive efforts in preventing such incidents in future might well work as a solace. Time is a great healer however for those who are ultimately responsible for this mass murder there is a warning that neither does Time forget nor forgive.

(Author can be mailed at xahid77@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST