anonymous

29th October 2019

My Story 1

MY STORY - 1

DR SHANTILAL J. MEHTA

After my graduation, I became a House Surgeon to the famous surgeon the late Dr A.K. Dalal who was a very strict disciplinarian. Though he was very tough, I had once seen the softer side of this great man.

One day he had operated upon a 20-year-old boy who was suffering from kidney infection. The boy was running high temperature—as high as 107 degrees F and we did not then have any antibiotics. Though he was not a paying patient in the J.J. Hospital, Dr Dalal came five times daily to see him. The last time he saw him was at 2 a.m. We started cold sponging the boy but at 4 a.m. he passed away and we removed him from his bed.

When Dr Dalal came in the morning, he went straight to the bed and found it empty. "Where is the patient, Shanti?” he asked me. When I told him that he had died, Dr Dalal asked me why I had not telephoned to him. I told him that he had seen the patient as late as 2 a.m. himself. But Dr Dalal burst out crying like a child. He then went to his office, washed his face, went down, got into his car and drove home. It showed how much he cared for his poor patient.