CHEST PAIN!

When I was a Lieutenant (another common-sounding rank with the Army and hence eligible to be called ‘Lieutenant (I.N.)’ by them (Please read ‘Captain (I.N.), Is It A Rank?’), I once reported with Chest Pain after playing a game of squash racquets. I was in an establishment called INS Agrani (Navy’s Leadership School for Petty Officers), in Coimbatore. I reported to the No. 6 Air Force Hospital there (as I go along, you will see how mine was a totally tri-service experience). I had assumed, with my ignorance-is-bliss-attitude that chest pain was like any other pain; eg, pain in the throat, leg, hip, arm and head. Little did I know that docs, friends and relatives go into a tizzy as soon as you utter the words chest pain. Before you can say anything else, Medical Specialists and Cardiologists take positions around you like fielders in the slips in a cricket match; telling you how you should reduce stress levels, how to put a pillow under your head and how to take life easy and just as it comes.

After I survived the first onslaught by the concerned docs, I was sent on sick leave to my home station Shimla in a medical category so low that one had to be on one’s knees to find the ruddy category.

Anyway, Shimla’s Military Hospital, at that time, didn’t have a qualified cardiologist (apparently people in hill stations have very sturdy hearts) and at the end of my leave I was asked to report to Army Hospital, Delhi Cantt for my re-categorization.

This was the biggest eye-opener experience for me. The Medical Ward was full of officers who had reported with Chest Pain. I learnt that all of them were getting their houses made in NOIDA and reporting with Chest Pain ensured free boarding and lodging in Delhi. The docs in the Army Hospital were following a don’t-trouble-us-and-we-shall-do-likewise policy. Officer-patients at night would tell grateful tales (for me horrid tales in my condition) of how they had stayed there for months without being seen by a doctor.

Chest pain ensuring free boarding and lodging

I made a lot of noise and Colonel D (I better not give the full name), the Cardiologist, agreed to see me on the next day of my reporting to the hospital. In the hospital, I discovered that even Brigadiers and Generals were scared of him and waited patiently outside his clinic cum office for hours altogether. If Colonel D would get annoyed, he could spoil an officer’s otherwise brilliant future by finding something wrong with his ECG or worse, a murmur in his heart.

After being sobered by such tales, I entered his office with trepidation and he asked me to bare the upper part of my body and lie on an examination table behind a screen. One Medical Assistant came and put jelly at various spots on my chest and after that went through the process of attaching the leads of the ECG at the jellied spots. These kept coming off as I breathed in and out; the breathing having become harder with the scare of the procedure and anxiety about the outcome.

Anyway, I maintained my calm with the visions of my Medical Category finally rising to its original lofty height. Just at the time when the MA was going to call Colonel D to have a look at me, some docs entered the room with reams and reams of ECGs.

Colonel D enquired from them if these were the ECGs of a very sick patient Subedar Swaran Singh. Through the slits in the screen I noticed that they all nodded agreement.

Colonel D took the first ECG and said, “I see some improvement from the last one.” At this they gave him more and more ECGs and he nodded encouragingly that the patient’s condition was indeed improving. Finally, when they finished showing him the last one, Col D enquired, “So, how’s the patient now?”

At this, one of them solemnly said, “Sir, the patient died this morning; we are still trying to figure out why.”

My breathing stopped altogether. For once the ECG leads on my chest stood their position and stopped falling off.

Epilogue: I got my category of a healthy young man after undergoing several tests such as TMT and sitting in a Decompression Chamber. I continued having a T-inversion in my ECG all throughout my life and even now. However, I cannot tell you enough how mortified I was that I would have suddenly improved ECG like Swaran Singh, and then conk off without anyone knowing why.

Author: Sunbyanyname

I have done a long stint in the Indian Navy that lasted for nearly thirty seven years; I rose as far as my somewhat rebellious and irreverent nature allowed me to. On retirement, in Feb 2010, the first thing that occurred to me, and those around me, was that I Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (you will find an article with this title in this blog) and hadn't lost all my noodles and hence thought of a blog titled 'This 'n That'. I later realised that every third blog is called 'This 'n That' and changed the name to 'Sunbyanyname'. I detest treading the beaten track. This blog offers me to air 'another way' of looking at things. The idea is not just to entertain but also to bring about a change. Should you feel differently, you are free to leave your comments. You can leave comments even when you agree and want to share your own experience about the topic of the blog post. Impudent or otherwise, I have never been insousciant and I am always concerned about the betterment of community, nation and the world. I hope the visitors of this blog would be able to discern it.

2 thoughts on “CHEST PAIN!”

  1. I had a similar experience having been put as low medical category SHAPE 3 as IHD case with impaired gulucose intolerance . After three years I was sent to Army Hospital Delhi Cantt for upgradation of category .
    Having been put through vraiety of similar tests I came out with flying colours to be upgraded to SHAPE 1 …. with the remarks ” it was an incorrect interpretation of the graph at first instance “.
    I wondered if I could sue the medicos for putting me through mental torture for 3 years . But it was not to be so !

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