It was the 12th of
August 2015. I was going to the terrace to join my Dad in his morning walk. But
then I saw my Dad walking down the staircase saying aloud ‘Jesus, Jesus’. He then
sat on the couch and seemed to be better. But after a while, he again started
saying aloud ‘Jesus, Jesus’ and he called me to pray for him. I didn’t know
that he was actually having a heart attack. I sat near my Dad and prayed a
short prayer and my Dad burped loudly and I thought he will be alright. I was
very disturbed in my spirit so I went to the terrace to pray. I walked three
rounds praying and my mom came running up the stairs saying “I am taking Dad to
the hospital, he is not feeling well”. I rushed down, my Dad pressed his right
hand to his chest and pain was seen in his face. My mom was ready in no time
and my mom ran down the street to look for a battery rickshaw. My Dad started
walking down the stairs to the road and his one look told me he wanted me to be
with him and didn’t want to be left alone.
My mother got a battery rickshaw with
some difficulty. After sending off my parents in a battery rickshaw, I rushed
home to get the necessaries and to hurry to the hospital as my mom hadn’t even
taken her cell phone. My parents didn’t know where to go. They knew just one
heart hospital in Sonipat which opened at 10 in the morning. My parents went
there and sat by the road and the battery rickshaw left. My Dad’s chest pain
was increasing. They started walking to the market in search of some other
battery rickshaw or some hospital. My mom was walking hastily in the front and
my Dad was also walking fast holding his chest very tight.
Suddenly an old man appeared like
an angel. He passed my Dad a few steps and retraced his steps to meet my Dad.
He asked my Dad “What’s wrong? My Dad replied “I am a heart patient and am
having severe chest pain”. He said “Go to Kutchey quarter to Batra hospital. An
ambulance will be standing there which will take you to Nidaan hospital”. Yes,
my parents had the direction now. The ambulance driver was putting the first
morsel of food to his mouth. Seeing my Dad, he put it down and immediately took
care of the situation. He turned on the siren and sped to the hospital. Thank
God it was morning time and the road was clear of traffic.
In the hospital, first they put on
an oxygen mask and did ECG and checked pressure. My Dad’s pulse rate was 52.
They wasted no time, immediately some injections were administered and a hand
full of tablets was given.
My husband and I reached the
hospital just then and scraped our bags for every currency note as there was no
ATM nearby. We managed to pay the advance. After sometime, we met the main doctor
on his way out of the ICU and when we asked he said my Dad was stabilized and was
taking rest and that there was nothing to worry. When my Mom went into see my
Dad in the ICU, he told her that each time he removed the oxygen mask, he was
getting chest pain.
As we were sitting and waiting
outside the ICU, I knew that God had many plans concerning my Dad and so God
would protect him from all danger. Yet my eyes welled up with tears every now
and then with different kinds of thoughts. For the past week God had been continuously
speaking to me through the verse “No weapon that’s fashioned against you will
stand” and when I shared my Dad’s illness with my classmates through WhatsApp,
a friend of mine quoted the same verse which was a strong confirmation.
All investigations were going on.
In the evening, the doctor called us to his chamber and said that an angiograph
had to be done the next morning to find if there was any block in the valves.
My brother Binny was suggesting moving to some other well known hospital like
Apollo. I was having some fear within me; I didn’t want to shift at this time.
Various kinds of fears took hold of me but I kept praying. When we talked with
Dad about this without a moment of hesitation he said “We’ll do it here”. Dad
added saying “In this hospital, they give very good care”. This removed all
confusion and we agreed to do angiograph in the very same hospital.
My youngest brother Abhishek took
an emergency leave, took a flight and reached 3:00 am the next morning. All my
other siblings were equally anxious and were calling every now and then.
The next morning, at 6:30, while
the angiograph was being done we were waiting in the visitor’s room next to the
Operation Theatre. The doctor called us after a while and showed us the video
of Dad’s heart and showed us the block. It was 99%. I held my breath for a
moment. My mom needed a lot of assurance. We were trusting in the greater
physician God who had brought us to this hospital. The confidence that the main
doctor showed and his 35 years of experience removed our fears. We agreed to go
ahead with the angioplasty and in another half an hour everything was back to
normal.
We stayed for another 2 days in the
hospital. The hospital was very well maintained. They even had a well furnished
room for visitors to stay. Round the clock, there were doctors and nurses in
the ICU. Even after we shifted to a private room, there always were nurses
waiting in the counter and regularly they came and did the needed test.
I thank God for taking care of
everything and for taking us to the right hospital at the right time and for
all the people who helped us so willingly. Before leaving for home, my Dad
finally met the head doctor and hugged him. The doctor said to my Dad, “Your
God is great”.
