Being Human

A Doctor speaks…

- Dr. Sachin Subhash Marda

Last week I received a mail from a patient whom I treated 3 years ago for oral cancer. The mail was a write up of her victorious journey against this dreaded disease. Each word was full of emotions which I could relate to and it touched me from within. Being her doctor, I was a participant in her emotional sojourn. It was a major setback in her life in which she went through the gruesome process of major surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. But she displayed tremendous hope and courage during and after the entire long course of medical treatment. She managed to bounce back to normal life, and her success story is truly inspirational. Her strong self belief, unflinching faith in the spiritual energy and her unshakable trust in the doctor were the 3 driving forces behind her resilience. She expressed her gratitude to God, to her family and to me for saving her life. Being an oncologist I treat many cancer patients in my day-to-day medical practice. For me every patient is a new challenge to succeed, a new success story to tell the world, a new ray of hope to feel, a new lesson to learn, a new inspiration to aspire, a new insight to mature.

I quite often receive such heart touching mails, thank you notes, words of gratitude and tears of happiness. I feel a sense of victory when I tell patients the good news that there is no trace of cancer in their body, holding the PET scan report in my hand after the completion of the treatment. The happiness in the eyes of the patients when I tell them that they have emerged as the winners and that they have conquered the unconquerable is beyond imagination. They feel on top of the world for having won the battle of life. There is an aura of courage and strength that permeates. During such times, I experience mixed emotion of joy, victory, hope and gratitude. I can experience the divine grace of the spiritual energy in those inexplicable moments. As our beloved