By O.J.George
Humanity has mastered the art and craft of prolonging life of the people with treatment utilising the help of various medical equipment. We have come a long way from the days of the apothecare who was considered the First in the fraternity, Onnaaman in Malayalam, In my childhood, I had seen an apothecare who used to divine diseases with the help of feeling the pulse, of course, he had a stethoscope of yore. Also he had what was called a steel pen and ink-pot, with the ink ball dissolved in water, for writing out prescriptions of medicines.
Even during those times various experiments were going on in different parts of the world to tame the deadly diseases that wiped out millions of people globally. Of course, these experiments were going on with the help of tools, medical gadgets and instruments.
In the case of medicines also, there were fast- changing developments for the betterment of the people. At one time, millions of people had died of typhoid before the invention of penicillin. Later developments had seen to it that deadly diseases like pneumonia, small pox, various types of plague and subsequently, HIV etc could be contained. Leptospirosis, Nipah virus, Dengue fever etc have taken the toll of many lives, no doubt about it. Developments have overtaken in many cases to tame abominable diseases, for example, using anti-retroviral medicines HIV patients can survive for a very long time.
Modern medicine is a fast- developing stream of dealing with every conceivable ailment, to the betterment of human kind. Now even pre-term babies can be supported with the help of incubators, nebulizer for taking care of breathlessness and asthma and the like. I can vouchsafe it for the fact that my son had arrived in the world at slightly less than seven months of his mother’s pregnancy. Our lives were churned by hospitalization of the kid for taking care of tenuous situations.
The baby had also suffered for a very long time on account of wheezy bronchitis. He could stand on his own feet and take frightful” (for the parents) steps only at the age of three years. But he would not sit idle anywhere, one should hold both of his stands over his head and he would run around the house.
I had noticed one thing, that was a special gift, he could talk cogently from the very early stage, which means he could express his feelings and fleece from his parents whatever he wanted. His life has been ensured using what all equipment were available there at the hospital. The pediatrician taking care of him all through his life (At the age of 14, the doctor had told us he is no more a child, he should be examined by a doctor for adults, but since the pediatrician was his stay-secure we used to consult him even later) had taken special care for him always.
When we visit hospitals with various problems, necessitating consultation with very many specialists we come across use of innumerable number of gadgets, without which the patients would not have been all right to such an extent as is possible. ECG, Ultra Sound system, MRI, etc are now commonly used in addition to the preliminary X-ray examination.
I know a person in the neighbourhood of the ancestral house who used to live 20 years extra using a pacemaker for the heart, that means he was 80-plus when he collapsed and died. Of course, he had recharged the battery once earlier. He had gone for recharging the battery a second time, but he was unwilling as he and his family members were witness to a patient dying during the process of recharging.
An old friend of mine here had developed heart problems which necessitated implanting of a pace-maker. He was reluctant at first saying he is now an old man and so let fate decide about his life. But his family members insisted on his prolonging life with the help of the pace-maker. He has since been all right after implantation of the gadget. I had jovially told him of the instance pointed out in the beginning, it providing 20 more of years for him.
Now I have come across an instance of a Parkinson’s Disease patient using such a facility for his brain. The process is called Deep Brain stimulation. The patient himself is a medical doctor, and after undergoing the expensive method, he could strut around with the help of a walking stick. Tremor, propensity for falling down have all been reduced considerably. I have read in the literature that expenses for the same could come up to Rs 90 lakh. Not all ordinary mortals can choose this method, for sure, but those who can afford should definitely take the chance.
Parkinson’s disease, which causes degeneration of neurons in particular part of the brain, is caused by absence in proper measure of dopamine. Celebrities such as Pope John Paul II, Evangelist Billy Graham, President George Bush Senior, had fallen prey to this debilitating medical condition.
Heart diseases, cancer onslaught have all immobilized very many people, but they could survive this long with the help of procedures and medication with varying degrees of success rate. The point is, people can pull on with very many diseases, at the behest of specialists and modern medical equipment.
I have got a message in the social media saying yesterday was Experience, today is the Experiment. Tomorrow is Expectation. Use your Experience in your Experiment to achieve your Expectation. This is well said for situations in modern times. At the time of my paternal grand-father, life expectancy was less than fifty years of age. Now things have changed dramatically with a lot of elderly persons struggling with their lives everywhere in the world.
Actually there should be a lot more of attention being bestowed on the elderly during their Sunset years. Let all the tools be accessible to them to take care of their lives. Man – machine nexus had started centuries ago, for human civilization, industrial revolution and all advanced only on account of the advent of various machines.
In the field of medicine, progress of using medical tools to equip doctors with ultra-modern facilities has become unavoidable. Using Artificial Intelligence and the like, there is talk of taking humanity to super-human levels. One day, there could be brain-manipulated beings in hibernation for eons, to wake up later in a different mode. The possibilities are endless, so far as technological innovations reach new heights.
