A RAINY DAY IN MANALI STARTS WITH A HAILSTORM
AS I REGROUP AND REPACK, CHANGING RETURN FLIGHT PLANS AND VISITING LADY WILLINGDON
HOSPITAL,
THEN OPERATING WITH DR. LAJI VARGHESE
Sep-C-10
After our arrival at 10:15 PM after the forced drive through the dark rain and snow of the high mountain passes and a near midnight retirement after eating and showering in the Kunzum Hotel which fortunately had room for us despite our unannounced early arrival, most of the team slept in all morning. I had got up early and hot all of my re-grouping chores completed, packing up all the exposed film, packing up the new bag to be stored in Simla for my next medical mission, presumably in January-a winter trek through the Himalayas!-and stashed my sleeping bag and warm stuff for the cold return trip. As I was scurrying around cleaning out the new duffel bag-which the monster mice of Kaza had chewed a hole in the bottom in order to get at a small packet of oatmeal inside!-I heard a gentle rain come down on the pan roofs. Suddenly a tattoo began to resonate and a hailstorm fell with large white marbles rolling off the \corrugated metal roof pans.
I went down to see it happening but even this did not awaken my colleagues, who only roused themselves later to assemble their laundry and get ready to do their major shopping excursions. I pulled out the newest of the Nonin Pulse Oximeters and went to Lady Willingdon Hospital where I waited for Laji Varghese who was "in TO" (the "Operating Theatre" in Indian Briticism). I met with him during a prostatectomy and promised him I would be back with a few physicians.
I then had to make a five stop attempt to change my ticket from the departure from Delhi to Frankfurt on Oct 7 now moved to Oct 1, and then try to get the destination changed since I am booked to go through Houston to New Orleans on the Oct 7 date to go to the American College of Surgeons-a date I still must do but now can depart directly from DC after turning in my film and the other regrouping I would have to do for the latter two venues of my disrupted itinerary. This gap of a week is occasioned by the cancellation of the Nepal trek for now and its postponement to May of next year. That adds one more stop for me to make in Asia in '02.
RE-TICKETING FROM A REMOTE "HILL VILLAGE"
So sophisticated a plan as changing my flight from this side of the world cannot be done in Manali, but must be booked in Delhi. I went to a travel agent who referred me up the street to Montal Travel and they said they would call Delhi and try to hold the seat and charge me 100 R's for the phone call. Right enough. Then I had to go to another shop to make a photocopy of my ticket to see that it could be changed without my paying a penalty, especially since I wanted to change the destination-albeit to a closer and more direct airport. Then I had to go to the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Agency since they are the ones with a fax and I had to get copies of the itinerary to them to be faxed for 130 R's. As of this moment, I believe I am reserved on the 1:25 AM flight to FRA, but beyond that I do not know what has happened to my ongoing itinerary for the venues of the ACS and the quite different equipment and clothes I will need for the Colorado visit. Either way, I am still tripped up for the Hartford marathon for which I had made a reservation which I thought might be Oct. 7, but turns out will be on Oct 13 when I am in Colorado-so my next run will still be the Baltimore Marathon with Joe.
OPERATING WITH DR. LAJI VARGHESE IN
LADY WILLINGDON HOSPITAL
I returned to the hospital with Bert Winterhaller, who had said he felt guilty about playing tourist and shopping, so I volunteered his services for any maxillofacial services they might need. I ran over in a downpour, after Bert, an amateur gemologist, bought all of the Tibetan turquoise one dealer had-over two kilograms worth, which he plans to profit by advertising on the internet for three times the five dollars a gram for which he bought it We were soaked when we got to the hospital and visited with Laji and his business manager and I presented him with the pulse oximeter and talked of the kinds of philosophy we share in trying to help the poor against considerable odds and ironies. He was called to do a cholecystectomy, which was added to the schedule, so he and I did it together-probably the first two Bush Surgeons of Manali collaborating. The cholecystectomy took a grand total of six minutes, and the patient was back in the ward with a hand wrapped packet of her gall stones-which looked a lot like the size and color of the Tibetan turquoise gems that Bert had just bought, Maybe the same dealer can drill and string them for a necklace.
We planned to make rounds and add a bit of help tomorrow, and I will carry over a couple of folk to join in rounds in the morning. It is fun to help such a very worthwhile endeavor. Laji said Christians make up 2.5% of the population of India but deliver over 30% of the health care and almost all of that is uncompensated. His 67 employee payroll is 3 "lakhs" or 300,000 rupees= $8,000 per month, and his collection is less than twice that number and only if he is there and doing operations, the most profitable part of their efforts-at 500-2000 rupees per operation ($10--$40) on their 1700 inpatient and 35,000 outpatients per year. He had two remote clinics, one in Kaza where I had first met him, and another in the more remote Chandravaga Valley, where he has built a school to train health care workers ten students in each venue from the distant villages that can support a local health care effort. This is all voluntary and apart from the alleged free government health care-which simply does not exist.
So, it was good to be operating with Laji and I will be back to doing some
more with him. I am now going off to our farewell dinner at the Italian restaurant
in Old Manali where we had celebrated after the Ladakh Mission of 2000!