Goodbye Karanjia

-a short story

That was the first posting after my post graduation in medicine. The place was Karanjia, a very remote place in the eastern part of India. Similipal, a dense forest then, famous for royal Bengal tigers and elephants is a few kilometres away from it. I had left behind my family at my home town in Baripada, the District Head Quarters. Most of my patients were local tribal people who came to Karanjia hospital only when the magic medicines and quackery the village Hakims practised, failed.
It was the month of May when the first monsoon rain had hit that part of the country. A continuous knock on my door around 4 AM in the morning aroused me from deep slumber following heavy rains that evening. With a lot of difficulty in the darkness, I managed to come out of the mosquito net to find out the intruder at that odd hours.. When I saw the hospital ward boy I could know that I have to go to hospital. The ward boy Dhanu informed me that a young boy has come from a remote village with pain abdomen and the junior doctor wanted my help.
The patient was around 20 years old, a healthy Adivasi boy who was rolling in pain. When I asked about the history, the brother of the patient told that there was some function in their village and the boy had taken some local alcohol and mutton at night and slept on the floor but suddenly got up around 12 midnight and complained of pain abdomen followed by vomiting. Thinking that the problem was due to alcohol all of them again went to sleep but the boy made their life miserable for pain and vomiting for which they sought the help of the local black magician who told that it is due to a bad spirit which had entered his body, and only killing a goat or a roster can satisfy the bad spirit.A goat was sacrificed but when many other things also failed they brought the young boy to the hospital.

Detail examination of abdomen did not reveal any abnormal finding except vague tenderness all over abdomen. In spite of pain the child was having a shallow respiration which made me suspicious. The villagers who had accompanied the patient said “Due to the black magic few persons die every year during this time.”
It was the examination of the eye in lantern light that revealed the diagnosis -it was a case of krait bite with bilateral ptosis. The anti snake venom which was lying in the store room had expired a few months back But there was no other way I could save this young boy. Polyvalent ASV 20ml was given directly and another 30 ml in drip plus a dose of hydrocortisone (200mg) was given intravenously.
I told the brother of the patient about the possibility of snake bite to which he commented "Doctor, you are mad, this is nothing but black magic". I asked our ward boy Dhanu to prepare 3 cups of strong tea. A cup of tea was given to the patient through a Ryle's tube. I requested attendants other than patient's elder brother to search for the snake where the patient was sleeping.
I told my junior to check his blood pressure, respiration and to give neostigmin injection hourly if the respiration becomes shallow. I looked at the watch it was 5:30 am and it was time for me to freshen up.

When I returned to hospital around 8:30am a big crowd was waiting for me. My first apprehension was that the young boy must have expired. But the father of the patient fell flat on my feet and said "Doctor you are our God, what you told is right" and opened a gunny bag and lo behold there was that speckled band. I got the scare of my life but the young boy survived and I became famous overnight as a result of this incident. Even my transfer to another place was delayed by four years.

And the day I left Karanjia that young boy whose name I still remember even after 24 years “Ignesh Majhi”was waiting for me with his 2 children and wife to say good bye.



Written by Dr. Sanjoy kumar satpathy.
House no:4.Plot:401/2362,Atpost:Patia,Bhubaneswar751031,India