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When God listened to me : Lung Cancer & Amrita's Smile
Dr. Rathin Datta FRCS (England, Edinburgh & Glasgow)
When God listened to me : Lung Cancer & Amrita's Smile
PHOTO : Seba hospital,Salt Lake, Kolkata.

After my retirement from the Govt.service, came to Calcutta, joined a nondescript hospital in Salt lake as Consultant Surgeon. Seba was a small neat hospital, run by a Doctors co-op. It was moderately well
equipped with friendly staff and I quite liked it. Peerless was starting a large hospital in Panchasayar promised me a slot, but it could be a long wait. In Seba my practice grew quite satisfactorily.

Lung Cancer & Amrita's Smile (Mid-1993)

One afternoon, Mr. De, a gentleman in his late thirties walked in to my chamber in Seba. He had intractable cough along with blood stained sputum.He said it had been bothering him for few a weeks, and was slowly getting worse. He had with him his young wife and a toddler son.

Amrita, his wife was dusky and had a sweet face, a sweet smile and a sweet voice. I instantly liked her – she reminded me of my daughter who had got married just the month before. Unbidden, a prayer rose to my lips - God, please let not this sweet girl see early widowhood.

They had seen quite a few specialists and produced a thick bunch of prescriptions and large number of path lab reports and x-rays.

Chest exam was fairly normal, but the breath sound on the right side sounded brashy. X-ray was reported normal, but I could detect a faint oval shadow in the edge of hilum. Bronchoscopy was indicated. A day was fixed, and keeping a standby anesthetist, I passed the scope under LA, through the mouth. Glottis reached the trachea where it bifurcates into two bronchi, entered the left, it was normal though little infected. I took a swab for culture and sensitivity, then withdrew and entered the right bronchus.

There was a sessile growth in the posterior wall. I took a biopsy and came out. Biopsy report was "Bronchogenic carcinoma of lung", squamous cell type. I suggested a Right sided total Pneumonectomy (total removal of right lung). They agreed, but there were a few big problems: Where to operate (Seba was not big enough for such major surgery)

Where would I find a good co-surgeon? I had trained in thoracic Surgery, but needed an equally competent co-surgeon. Few more tests remained to be done before the surgery.

Prof. Eva Dastoor (early 1965)

Dr. Eva Dastoor FRCS was my batchmate in the Royal College of Surgeons, and Registrar of Thoracic Surgery in our sister-hospital in Manchester where I was the Registrar of General Surgery.

Eva was a reputed surgeon – fast, deft and highly skilled. Though in two neighboring hospitals, and aware of each others reputations, we met only when we had gone to attend the final FRCS course in RCS, Edinburgh.

Eva arrived 2 weeks into the course and after results of two weekly tests were out.

She was a go getter. She wanted the best student as her partner and asked to meet me. We met over my routine lunch of Scottish beer and sandwiches, and immediately hit it off.  I appreciated her sharp wit and obvious expertise and intelligence. We decided to team up for the FRCS exam, and during the 3 month period prepared well for the exam. Both of us cleared the final FRCS in our first attempt.

She was a Parsi (Zoroastrian), fair skinned like most Parsis, with a long Parsi nose, but her looks were marred by ugly pock marks in both her cheeks. She wanted to get some surgical help. I was a pet student of the reputed Plastic Surgeon Prof. Wallace. I took Eva to him for correcting her facial defects. We both had just cleared the FRCS, were fresh Fellows, so he immediately took a liking. 

She was admitted under Prof Wallace in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh & the Prof. True to his reputation in Dermabrasion and Rhinoplasty, made Eva a truly beautiful woman. The pock marks were gone and the long nose reduced to an Anglo-Saxon standard of perfection. This was in March 1965. Two months later, I completed FRCS England and left England. Eva and I lost touch.

Partnership Renewed (mid 1993)

In looking for a co-surgeon, I found out that Dr. Eva Dastoor  was in a large hospital in Calcutta. I telephoned. Eva picked up. After some friendly abuse,we discussed Mr. De's case, and she agreed to renew our partnership, and perform the complicated surgery together. She found a not-too-expensive but well-equipped private hospital where Mr. De could be operated. "Just bring your own anaesthetist", she ordered me.

So on the appointed day, two old friends stood face to face across the patient in the operation theatre table across the patient. Prof.Debroy a very skilled anesthetist put the patient under. I passed

the knife to Eva, she reversed the knife and passed back to me saying "It is a man's privilege, mate". It was a posterolater position thoracotomy; we zoomed in through the right 5th space. Dr Debroy

through one lung anaerthesia had deflated the affected Right lung, so we had enough space to play around. Felt for pretrachial lymph glands - none were found.

We secured the pulmonary veins, and then the two great arteries. The bronchus was then freed from the esophagus, dissected upto the Carina and cut flush and the ends  sawed up.

The right lung thus seperated the lung was lifted up from the chest cavity. Haemostasis was obtained and the chest incision was closed leaving a drain. The mandatory x-ray was taken, found ok.

The post operative state was stormy. Eva suggested and later took the patient to her hospital which was better equipped, and moreover, a team trained in chest care worked there. I was kept informed.

Mr. De later received Chemotherapy and also Radiotherapy. In the mean time something extraordinary happened. Dr DebRoy refused to take any professional fee.

He wrote: "I witnessed some extraordinaty performance by two surgeons who were neat, fast and highly skilled. I enjoyed watching the procedure and that is the fee for me. Kindly do not accept any payment on my account".

Eva decided to retire the next year. She said it was time to get married, at the age of 63 yrs. She emigrated and we lost touch again.

So Mr. De was back in my hands. His cough persisted. I bronchoscoped again, found thick inspisated pus jammed into the stump of the resected right bronchus, which I cleaned with difficulty. His cough improved. He came down with viral encephalitis which we spotted early with lumber puncture and within 14 days he was fully cured and went back home.

In 2012, I decided to retire from active Surgery after reaching the age of 80.

Amrita's son's wedding

It was 2014 month of November. My mobile rang – it was Amrita. She wished to see me. I told her I do not see patients any more, but my doors are open for the De's, and I would expect them in the evening.

That evening, the De's trooped in - father mother and son. Mr. De had retired after reaching 60 and looked in the pink of health. He produced a bunch of reports  which I perused, and told him that those  reports looked better than mine when I was 60. Xray chest was clean as a whistle, minus the right lungs of course.

The family was ecstatic - they said they never expected Mr. De to reach 60 after the diagnosis of Cancer 21 yrs back. The son has become an engineer and got a job in a bank.The proud mother; Amrita looked prosperous, and a little plump. She produced a photograph of the prospective bride.

She wanted my approval and blessings. Done, I said.

As I was seeing the family off at the lift, Amrita's sweet voice rang, a bit tremolously "Asol bhagobanke to kokhono dekha jaina, amar bhogoban ke dekhe gelam".

("You never get to see God – I got to see my god”)

I recalled my prayer 21 years back "God never let this sweet girl see widowhood". God had listened.

Editing : Rajorshi Datta.B.Tech[IIT] MBA [Berkleys]

Dr. Rathin Datta, FRCS (England, Edinburgh & Glasgow).FFIMS (Athens) 

Surgeon & Sports Medicine Specialist, Retd. Chief Advisor of Surgery, GB & VM Hospitals, Govt of Tripura

Padmashree Awardee, winner of the Bangladesh Liberation war honour 

This article also published in Facebook www.facebook.com/tripurainfoway simultaneously.

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