The water tank was three feet high, and at the back of one of the buildings in our colony. We were playing a variation of chor-police. I had to chase someone at that point. My target ran away from the tank. Without further hesitation, I leaned forward and leapt to the ground. I landed on my feet, but was off balance. I only managed two strides ahead before falling.
The building compound was hard concrete with scattered stones and rocks. The middle of my left hand landed on top of one of the rocks. The full weight of the rest of my body came crashing down on the left hand. The exact details are somewhat blurred in my memory. However, I will never forget the soft but unmistakable Crack sound. At the time, I did not know what that sound was. I had an instinct something bad had happened.
As I sat up on the ground, I felt a burning explosion in my left arm. I let out a scream of agony that must have been heard several buildings away. I looked down at my arm in horror. The arm was bent at unnatural angle pivoted halfway between the elbow and the palm. The lower part of the arm looked ready to fall off. I hastily brought my right hand below it to give some support.
All the kids in the building gathered around me. They had shocked expressions as they watched me scream my lungs out. The pain was like nothing I had experienced before. My mother was alerted and came rushing out. I can still see the look in her eyes when she saw me. It was a mixture of anxiety and fear that bordered on outright panic. She barked orders to the watchman to call for a taxi. Breach Candy hospital was across the street from our colony.
“Mamma, help me.” I cried. “It’s hurting very badly.”
“ Please, Mamma, do something. I can’t bear it.” I pleaded.
There was a look of helplessness on my mom’s face.
“It will be ok, beta. We have almost reached the hospital.”
“You have to be brave now, Naveen.” My mom said in a soft tone.
Soon, I found myself sitting on a chair in the examination room.
“We need to take an X-ray of the arm.” A man wearing a white coat said.
“Beta, I will need you to lift your left arm and keep it on the x-ray machine.” He addressed me.
I looked at him as though he had asked to climb Mount Everest in the middle of a freezing winter, that too in my under clothes. Every time I moved, I felt like the arm was going to fall off. The excruciating pain validated this theory. How the hell did this moron expect me to lift it and place on the x-ray machine?
“I don’t think I can do that.” I declared.
“C’mon, Naveen. We’ll help you.” It was my mom.
“No. There is no way I can get my arm up there. It is just not happening.”
“Just try at least. You have to get an x-ray done.”
“Why is it necessary to get an x-ray?” I demanded, looking at Mr. White Coat. “We all know it is broken.”
“We have to know where it is broken, which bones are broken. Only then will be able to perform a surgery to fix it.”
Mr. White Coat stood up from his seat now and came over to me.
“The sooner we can do the surgery, the better it will be for you. You want the pain to stop, don’t you?”
I glared at him, unconvinced. Reluctantly, I agreed to comply. My mom, Mr.White Coat and I lifted my arm together slowly and carefully and brought it down on the x-ray machine. I yelled every second as this happened.
Mr. White Coat brought the x-ray and showed it to us. I saw four shiny white pieces of bone in my arm.
“The ulna and the radius are the bones that run from the wrist to the elbow.”
Mr.White Coat spoke as though he were lecturing a group of college students.
“In your case, both are broken into two pieces each.” He added simply.
“We will put the arm in a temporary cast and operate first thing tomorrow morning. Do you have any specific surgeon in mind?” He asked my mom.
At this point, my father arrived on the scene and was quickly brought up to speed. He seemed relatively calm. After making a call to the family doctor, my parents came up with a name of a surgeon. Dr. Jain was the chosen one who would be charged with the task of fixing my arm.
The procedure of putting on the cast was quick but very painful. Before I knew it, I was at home, lying in my bed. I lay face up staring at the ceiling. Every time I moved my body even an inch, it was accompanied by a sharp, shooting pain in the left arm. Movement of any kind was just not worth it. Sleep was almost impossible to come by. I stared at the fan envious of how it could rotate its blades so freely. It is amazing that a thing as simple as movement that we naturally take for granted can seem so precious when you don’t have that luxury.
Morning eventually came after what seemed like an eternity. As I went to the hospital, I felt many mixed emotions. Fear, nervousness, pain, apprehension were all there. Strangely, I also felt a sense of an impatience for the whole thing to be done with. Next thing I knew, I was lying in a hospital bed with some injections shoved into the back of my palm. I was made to wear that dull blue hospital gown that I had always disliked. Both my parents were by my side throughout.
“Naveen, how do you feel? Are you nervous?” My father asked. I nodded, almost imperceptibly. He smiled at me.
“Don’t worry, everything will be ok.”
My bed was wheeled into what must have been the operating room. I was beginning to feel a bit light-headed. A tall broad-shouldered man wearing a green mask strode into the room, and introduced himself as Dr. Jain. In my drug-induced daze, I could make out two others in green masks. There were bright, circular lights directly above me. I was blinded as I looked up at these white lights.
I heard voices that could have been the doctors in conversation.
“Did you see the match yesterday?”
“It was a pathetic collapse. Sachin has really lost form these days.”
“I swear it. And that Ganguly. I don’t know why they still select him.”
I wondered if these were the same jokers who were about to operate on me. They clearly had other things on their mind. The room around me was becoming a blur. The lights above seemed hazy. I was unable to keep my eyes open anymore.
I woke up still in a daze. I was awake, but I found it difficult to open my eyes. I heard my father’s voice next to me. All of I sudden, I opened my eyes and saw that I was back in the hospital room. My arm had a new cast on it and was suspended from a metal rod above the bed. It felt strange. There was no pain, but I still was uncomfortable. I glanced across at my father seated at the bedside.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Okay, I guess. How long have I been here?”
“Two hours. But, you have been talking to me for the last fifteen minutes.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Your eyes were closed, but you were talking.”
“What was I saying?” I asked, having no recollection of this.
“Oh, you were rambling on about cricket and music and movies; things like that.”
“Anyway, the doctors said that the surgery went well.” My father informed me.
Dr. Jain strode into the room at that moment.
“How are you feeling? Ok?” He beamed at me. I nodded vaguely.
Dr. Jain put the x-ray in front of us. This time there were only two pieces of bone, but the x-ray showed a thin cylindrical structure in each of them.
“Those are two metal rods that we have inserted to hold the bones in place. The bones should re-generate in no time. After a year, we can take these rods out. You will be perfectly normal with these rods until then.”
The thought of having two rods in my arm was difficult to digest. I could see how my friends would joke about this when they found out. Maybe ‘Rod-Man’ would be my new nickname.
As the doctor left the room, I reflected on what had been an eventful past twelve hours.
“You will be back to normal before you know it.” My father told me.
“Broken bones, broken heart; they can all be fixed. Time heals all wounds.”
In due time, I found out that he was right. After eight months the cast came off and a few months after that so did the rods. Time proved to be the greatest healer.
