This is one of the best perk in being a doctor – when you get a thank you note from one of your patients. And when the thank you note is attached to a large pineapple cream cake, the joy is enormous. Ananthara came to us more than a year ago for a simple check up when I found out she also had delayed developmental milestones and a squint. Since then she has made immense progress and the mother has been faithfully bringing her for therapy and they have made a couple of visits to CMC.Today was her second birthday and she came and gave us this beautiful (and delicious) cake.Incidents like these really encourage me to continue to be…

Sangeetha’s baby was a extremely preterm baby with respiratory distress syndrome.Within 2 hours of age it was clear she was going to worsen and hence we decided to ventilate her and give her survanta – a special medicine given directly to her lungs. The survanta is 8 milliliters, is given in 5 minutes and costs a whopping 10000 indian rupees. Thankfully she did well after that and within a few days was off the ventilator. After carefully nursing her and letting her feed, today finally she was fit enough to go home. Her total bill including the ICU stay and the ventilation came to about Rs. 20000. Add the survanta charges and what was spent was about 750 US $……

Part of the profession is to deal with a situation when the unexpected happens. A lot of times I’m left wondering if I could rewind those few minutes that made the difference between a well child and a sick one.I’ll briefly tell you about children who came to the hospital with injuries.This blog post is not for the faint-hearted.1. A 4 year old girl was playing on the balcony of the first floor at home when she tripped over the low parapet wall and went plunging head first to the ground. She was brought with no heart rate or breathing to the ER. Inspite of attempted resuscitation she did not survive.2. A 6 year old girl was sitting behind her…

One of the biggest blessings in my pediatric OPD are the cartoons, puppets and colorful pictures in it.I’d blogged about the transformation of the Pediatric OPD about a year ago.Everyday its amazing how children grab the toys, stare around in awe and squeal with joy. Of course there are still those who bawl and bawl and shed a liter of tears!This short mobile video clip shows a child with a chest infection having fun in the OPD. Apologies for the poor quality of the video and the glaring window in the background – you can still see the childs glowing face!

Grace delivered her baby 2 months ago. The baby was all of 800 grams! She was one of the smallest babies we have ever managed. Against all odds she literally cruised her way out of nursery with just minor problems – some jaundice, a touch of oxygen, a blood transfusion. She literally grew in front of our eyes and today is fit for discharge! Just another time in my life when I realise that even with very little help God’s little babies have their own way of facing the world! So here is the little one – in an oversized sweater looking cute and ready to face the world.

I couldn’t resist sharing this pic on my blog! This sight greeted me when I entered the Nursery. For some reason the babies on one side had pink dresses and pink sheets. I found it pretty cute. Click the picture to view a larger photo.

Today had several things that were out of the ordinary. I was alone in OPD and we had a record 51 children who came to the OPD. I had to do a bone marrow and did it alone at around 4 PM – after I had a hurried lunch. The ward was so full that I had to shift the stable children to other wards.But what I remember most is R – a chirpy 6 year old girl who has a deformed right arm from birth. She had come to us 3 weeks ago with fever and anemia and since we suspected Leukemia we had sent her to CMC for confirmatory tests. She came back with a confirmed diagnosis of…

My presentation on Migraine almost caused me a major headache. Everything fell apart in the last minute and then miraculously came back together in the last second!I had finished preparing the presentation about an hour early and was ready to go. Unfortunately the CD burner was giving errors and my USB drive was in the car. As B was just finishing her presentation preparation too and was about to burn it on a CD I called her up and said I would email it to her so she could add mine also.The email reached her in 5 minutes.Blackout – total power cut!Luckily B had a laptop and the battery would last 1 hour. She could burn the CD. I got…

We’ve done it once in the past 2 years and this weekend we did it twice! Exchange transfusions have been rare at our hospital, but yesterday I ended up with a neonate with Rh iso-immunisation and hemolytic jaundice and did an exchange transfusion. Betsy helped out and the procedure went on well even though Praburam was not around.Unfortunately today the jaundice started increasing again and Betsy also was not around. I ended up doing the second exchange transfusion alone with the help of nurses. Both times we did it late in the night, but thankfully things went on well and the baby had no problems! Praburam and I have always been saying that there are no exchange transfusions around –…

Praburam was off today as he was down with a bad fever and cold and scratchy throat and I was left to fend for myself in OPD. Luckily, even though it was busy, I managed to finish off all the work with not many problems. Just another day and another reason to praise God for!