It was during the first year of my ENT Pg in Bangalore medical college. My senior and myself were doing the night duty. Please don’t ask ENT and night duty??!… Bleeding, giddiness, foreign body, extreme breathless and so many emergencies are part of ENT only!…. In any case we had this girl around five years who was admitted in our ward with maggots….Yes u read it right. These larva of houseflies are seen in poorly kept open wound and this kid had a bad ear discharge. They slowly eat away the dead skin and come out occasionally for air and light only to scamper back to the insides of body cavity slowly eating their way and feeding on our own flesh.
The mother who would have been not more than 26-27 years (my age!!) Bought the girl stating that this was the best time to take out the maggots since they come out at night. This was her third girl child and it showed. The bedsheet which she used to cover her would have never come in contact with water and the dress which the little one was wearing had lost its original color and blended with the colour of the bedsheet which in turn was blending with the colour of the girl….all brown and black and now red over the ears…The lady kept on mumbling on how this time with this kid she wants to do things right. How she wants to make her read and educate her properly. The first two kids were apparently lost cause. The first one was already married and the second was least interested in studying. She was good in cleaning utensils and house though. My senior and myself used the old lamp in our minor procedure room to take out those wriggling maggots one by one. Those wriggly worms would try to escape our tweezers but we held on…. We removed close to ten in all and could immediate see the relief in the kids eyes!…. Those previous sunken eyes were now having a twinkle…..all done and set and my senior remarked so what’s for dinner!!???…
Since both of us did not get anything we went to the nearby old joint for a quick bite!!…he ordered his preferred biriyani and I settled on a plate of dried roti and warm yellow water (the waiter insisted that it was dal!!)…. While eating I was sure that I saw a similar worm which we just removed jutting out from the piece of meat which my senior was relishing!…when I mentioned it to him he just said that it’s OK…. Just means more protein!!…. He added that since we just removed so many maggots u are seeing that!!…. In all probability it would just be a worm which is fine by me don’t worry!!
The next day during our rounds I saw the kid running around and when she saw me she gave me a hug!…the mother exclaimed that the doctor has told her to go as the kid is doing good!….she told her kid to come and gimme a hug which she did and I felt it was a long hug…….I said bye to her and was feeling quite happy thinking heartily how we make such great change in the society!…. That’s when my mind which was rooted in reality bought my heart to speed and instinctively told my hands to check on my wallet!!…..it was gone!…. You wouldn’t anyway have much money when u are a government college Pg so the loss was just a couple hundred bucks!….
Then i realized what the kid would be when she grows up……she would lie in the dark and come out to strike and go back to her dark corner worming her way through her decaying existence….. reminded me of something….
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