From 1868-72, George Hardinge designed a two-story Gothic building with a beautiful clock tower in central Chennai, formerly known as Madras, a southern metropolitan city in India

These structures house the headquarters of the Central Railway station which paved the way for the establishment of business and development of the region. August 22nd of 2024 marks the 384th birthday of this beautiful city that I call home. While I have moved on in life, and am currently in Chicago, Illinois, my training as the “railway doctor” is more pertinent now than ever.

My typical week included examining 300 patients in the clinic, performing 20-30 minor and major surgeries, and two 35 hour shifts. Apart from this, I managed the pre and post medical complications,performed endoscopies, colonoscopies, thoracocentesis, ascitic fluid taps, and healed different types of wounds in the septic ward. Handling this work load was a basic requirement for a practicing doctor in India, where the patient to doctor ratio is almost double what is recommended by the WHO (1:1000.) The Railway Hospital provides free care to its 1.23 million employees and their families. The doctors are given all the support required to provide world class treatment to their patients. For instance, I could experiment with vacuum dressing for my patients with non-healing ulcers, and also refer my patients on the floor with rare congenital heart diseases for in-house, world renowned cardiac surgery. I could outsource the best neurosurgeons and radiotherapists depending on my patients’ conditions. During my shift I might have had to organize the management of a bleeding postpartum mother, while simultaneously attending to a case of a road traffic accident with facial and head trauma, and a patient on chemotherapy presenting with fever.

You might wonder, how does a doctor excel in their patient care day in and day out in such conditions? It is from experience. I know it is not all because of the clinical skills – which are sharpened choicelessly, to the extent I could actually suture facial injuries in my sleep! No, I am not joking. Recently, I met one of my friends, and I wasn’t sure if she was married or not. Upon clarification I found out that she indeed was, and I had attended the wedding between two of my 35 hour shifts – I didn’t know if it was a dream I had or if it was a reality I had lived. During my training, my waking hours and my sleep were all just one long spell. The sheer workload, and the obligation of performing your best constantly remoulds you forever. 

Why do I speak of this now?

Since the pandemic, I am hearing so much about burnout among my colleagues, driven by the unmanageable workload for healthcare professionals. With prolonged lock down spells, people were distanced from their loved ones and became agitated in their homes due to loneliness. I feel that sharing what kept me and my colleagues going in the Railway Hospital will hopefully help someone, and it is also my way of paying respects to the city I come from. Reminiscing now, I know human relations, team work, good communication, astute leadership skills, kindness between colleagues, love, and affection showered by my family and friends kept me going.

While I am not currently a first responder for patients, I find fulfillment from where I am. I find happiness by volunteering in free clinics, talking with people in their homes, providing counseling, and constantly nurturing kindness and human affection. As Andy in The Shawshank Redemption says, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” I find such hope, the light at the end of the tunnel, in the small acts of kindness that surround me now and back then when I was the railway doctor.