I was very rigid - would not call any other women “Maa”except my own mother, did falter once.I had passed my MBBS in late fifties. After completing my preregistration training for six months, got the post of House surgeon in General Surgery & worked very hard – wanted to prove I was the best house surgeon ever who worked in the Assam Medical college, popularly called ‘the Amcol’. Why was this fire in me?

I was the topper in the under grad classes, also in the first MBBS, the first University exam.This position was lost in the final exam.Was it because I lost my father just before the final exam or the Asian flu of 1957 which I caught during the Exam & sat for the exam with 106 degree temp? From the sick-bed that I lost my place, this was no consolation, worked very sincerely and very hard.

I worked very hard and after completing 14 months of the housemanship, was rewarded, as I was promoted to the post of Surgical Registrar even though I was not a true Assamese, a true son of the soil, though I was born and brought up in Assam, spoke fluent Assamese with a correct upper Assam accent.

First month, a very good looking lady in her late forties was admitted in the Private ward (as the Registrar I was I/C). She came from an area between Golaghat and Jorhat, obviously a well to do Brahmin Assamese family, Brahmin widow. Owning Tea gardens - a Planter family, spoke a polished sweet Assamese; she must have been stunningly beautiful in her younger days.

On exam it was seen that she had high temperature with a painful lump in her upper abdomen.Tests were ordered, high white cell count meant there was severe infection, but what alarmed us was her very high blood sugar level & high creatinine and high urea level. No ultrasound test was then available. Diagnosis of Galllstones with severe infection, Diabetis mellitus and kidney failure was the diagnosis. Professor saw her and decided to refer her to the Prof. of Medicine who was a very renowned person Dr.B.H. P.Pye. He agreed with our diagnosis and advised. The lady was improving when the Professor Surgeon suddenly decided to operate. Minimal invasive surgery was unknown then, an open laparotomy and Cholecystectomy was planned.

She was an extremely pretty lady with a very sweet smile and started calling me as ‘Bopai’ or ‘mor lara’ meaning my son and with out thinking I started calling her as ‘mor aii’, meaning my mom. Whenever I found time I would be in her cabin, we talked endlessly. Her own son was few years younger than me, and her daughter, started calling me ‘kakaideo’ meaning elder brother. He was a university student and she was in school.

This decision to operate was a grave mistake (now that I know better- a crime) I lost my second mother, whom I had found only few weeks back. What was the mistake?
While training, we were taught in the Royal College of Surgeons that there are few dont’s in Surgery. The foremost don’t was ‘never plunge your  knife in a diabetic body unless you are absolutely sure that the Blood sugar is controlled, controlled and steady for at least a week and kidney damage if present, is controlled.  Never even anasthetise; make sure that the cardiac status is normal. That is also not enough, if and when a diabetic patient is operated, an expert diabetologist should take over the care of blood sugar and acidosis/alkalosis management control before the start & during and after the surgery till discharged from the hospital. Here the infection was not even controlled; no notice was taken of the kidney failure, no attempt to see if the diabetis was fully controlled and stabilised. I felt I had failed in my duty to prevent the professor from going ahead with the surgery, virtually murdering the patient because I was still a raw graduate and my boss was in a hurry to go home for his summer holiday (and did not want to lose the Surgeon’s fee). But for a change, I refused to assist the Professor as the first assistant; help of an assistant Professor was requisitioned.

Sister Angelina the OT head sister later described the happennings in a short commet, “It was a bloody massacre”. As the two surgeons cut and progressed through the superinflammed tissues, it bled furiously, in a few minutes couple of litres of blood was lost. In desperation, I ran and called the Prof. of clinical Surgery to come and help. He was a skilled surgeon – just made an opening in the Gallbladder wall took the stones out, packed off the raw areas and came out leaving a rubber drain. The patient was barely alive, in surgical shock. We kept on pumping in fresh blood and oxygen, while the anaesthetist did his best to salvage the patient.

What was evident did happen. My aai [my mother] slowly went into multi system failure, her operated wound refused to heal and got badly infected, but she never lost her beautiful smile even when she was very sick. In vain, I struggled day and night to save my Aii.

The ill famous riot against the Bengali population “called the Bongal Kheda andolon” was on; large number of innocent’s injured, dead bengalees were brought in the hospital where a Bengali son was struggling to save his Assamese mother. The family took her home 3 (three) weeks after the surgery, she died within few days in her home. The bereaved son [forgot his name, it happened more than 50 yrs ago], came and met me in the resident’s hostel in a big American car, [think It was the famous Lincoln] He wanted me to accompany him for the final rites of our Mom], it was little different from the Bengali Sradh. He wanted me to do my duty of the eldest son. I knew the family was rich, but did not know till then the enormity of their wealth. Done; I came back and called my own mother at Shillong. She blessed me. The ill famous (60’s Bangal kheda riot started in June’ 60). I never found my new found family again. I decided to leave Assam, my home state, and never go back, left for UK for my FRCS in December 1960.

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

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

Padmashree Awardee, winner of the Bangladesh Liberation war honour 

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