Thank you Prof (Dr) Pamecha Sir!

Dear Pamecha Sir, On 10.1.2023, during one of your daily rounds in semi-private ward (3017-02), you said to a patient, “You have a lovely smile”. That smile is of my father, and today is his 67th birthday. My father, Shri Narendra Kishore Sinha, has been a healthy man. Even the common illnesses that happen to most of us – cold, cough and fever, never affected him very often. In fact, I do not remember the last time he was sick. Of late, he appeared febrile. But the even thought that he could be ill never struck our mind. On 9.11.2022, he had fever in the range of 102 and above. In the last three decades, he never missed a chance to receive us at railway station whenever we came home. So even the high-grade fever was not a deterrent for him, and he was there at Patna Railway station at 4am on that day. He just had a paracetamol and was confident that he would get better in a few days. I impressed upon him to get the fever evaluated. During the course of evaluation, he underwent USG wherein one finding changed his life, for ever and forever. That finding was, “solid-cum-cystic mass lesion in right lobe of liver”. And then, our horrendous journey started. Between 9.11.2022 and 27.11.2022, our consultations ranged from a physician in Samastipur district of Bihar to senior Medanta consultant in Patna to a Hepatologist there to GI surgeon, Hepatologist, Onco-physician, Onco-surgeon, Pulmonary physician in Jaipur besides n number of online consultations. Not only were those consultations but also the subsequent medical tests – Blood tests, X-rays, USG, Endoscopy, CT Scan, PET CT, Dota Noc Scan – were unusual to a usually fit and healthy man. In Jaipur, we had a diagnosis – liver tumour. But the big question was, whether the tumour was resectable or not, considering its voluminousness and extent. As my sister and brother-in-law are doctor themselves, to arrive at a conclusion was even more difficult, and I owe it to their easy and wide access to opinion of expert doctors. And, then we met Dr Sahil Gupta Sir in Jaipur. During our one-hour long discussion with him, he cleared all our doubts, apprehensions, and we finally took the decision to go for surgery at ILBS Delhi. At our first meeting on the fourth floor of the old building of the ILBS premises, we found you affable. The way you immediately checked the PET CT Compact Disc (CD) and your first response was, “Resectable lag raha hai. We need more tests.” Then our journey at ILBS started. From 27.11.2022 to 10.1.2023, we had two stints there. One was a short one to get all the pre-operative tests done. And then the longer operative and post-operative stint. During our almost 40 days of stay there, it was your assuring presence that has kept alive hopes of not only us but also of so many patients who used to wait the entire day for your morning and evening wisdom during rounds. The battery of doctors who follow you, reignites hopes of patients, who were starting to feel “unfortunate”, as I overheard this word so many times during my stay as attendant there. That D-day on 16.12.2022, when you operated upon my father, and you said to me in the evening post surgery, “Tumour bada tha. Kafi blood loss hua hai.” The moment you saw me getting nervous, the way you changed the voice tone and said, “But, Everything went well. We will review him in ICU for few days”. Like me, there were many attendants used to stand for hours before ICU room, just to hear your assuring words that, “All is well, even if it was not”. As I checked in the discharge summary handed over to us on 10.1.2023, I saw my father had a lot of post-operative complications like right pleural effusion, intra-abdominal collection, surgical site infection and chyle leak, leading him to longer post-operative stay. My father, as he calls himself, vicharshil, used to ponder over all these complications, making it more difficult for him to come out of those surgical trauma. But you and your team never made us feel that things are not good, even when he was shifted again to ICU on 31.12.2022 night. Our new year started with father in ICU, but then the procedures conducted on him in late night of 31.12.2022 yielded positive results. I met him in ICU on 1.1.2023 morning and he said, “Better feel ho raha hai”. Finally on 10.1.2023 when you advised for my father’s discharge, complimenting his smile, he was joyous as he craved like a child to come out of the hospital. He called us some six-seven times that why there is a delay in the discharge process, and the resident doctors said, “His case necessitates longer discharge summary and is taking time”. Today on his birthday, you have given him a new lease of life. My family and I express our sincere gratitude to you and the battery of doctors at ILBS Delhi who have taken care of my father so well in those troublesome days. Thank you, again. Sumit S/o Shri Narendra Kishore Sinha (Patient ID: 297558)