Ferozepore (2)

-MH Ferozepore –contd

I left you with me in a state of shock at the plight of Joshi who aspired to represent Army in Hockey lying with  BOTH legs amputated by cruel war. I had known him for only four weeks but still I cried, I don’t know why! Thank you Sister Gill for helping me to recover. I suppose we were siblings born to Mother India-- (Later I met Joshi fitted with artificial limbs in ALC Pune & was shocked again, pleasantly this time, looking at his cheerful face and pride that he could drive a specially designed three wheeler. Bravo!).

Back to MH Ferozepore: Casualties continued to pour in. NO HELP,   NO HELP at all from AHQ. Wry humour was permissible under those circumstances—Either AHQ believed that MH Ferozepore had been ‘captured’ by Pakis or we in Ferozepore wanted to believe that DELHI had been captured by Pakis !!Both surmises were proved wrong when my CO received ORDERS to IMMEDIATELY ‘despatch’ (I resented this term then & even now) the medical specialist ( would it not be simpler to call me a physician!)to Abhor to attend to Brig.Puri who had severe pain in the chest.—Sri Puri had served as ADC earlier to GEN.Choudhry COAS) (chief of army staff)& hence the urgency--  Abhor was a border town even closer than Ferozepore to Pak and I was warned by a kind Div staff officer that the entire region was HEAVILY MINED and I should be careful. Naturally I asked “How does one avoid stepping on a mine?” ( Joshi’s predicament flashed thru my mind) “Well, Good luck Doc” was all that he could say. Driver of my jeep was far more helpful “ Saab aap kisiko balla karne keliey jara rahain, aap ko kuch nahin hoga’ .I examined Brig.Puri. Symptom wise he had a heart attack Stable clinically.My equipment—Stehoscope & sphygmomanometer ( BP apparatus for the less informed!). NO ECG. My ‘orders’ were that I should shift him  to MH Ambala. When I assessed the logistics It was clear that this order was from a ‘chair borne administrator’. To Ambala it would have taken FOUR hrs by road & then another six hours by train ( presuming that trains were running at all & on Time). Whereas it was 30 mts to rail head from where Brig was & another three hrs to my hospital in Ferozepore. Capt.Krishnan  IGNORED  the AHQ instructions & took him with me to my hospital in Ferozepore. 24 hrs later- Maj.Jagmohan Grover senior physician in MH Jallunder, arrived in Ferozepor under orders from AHQ to advise on the Brig. He replied to AHQ that BEST had been done. When I thanked him he said “remain true to your profession ,you can’t go wrong”. I was to meet him later when I was reader in medicine in AFMC & Col.Grover was associate professor. We became friends notwithstanding the difference in seniority.( AHQ babus wrote his name as J. M. Grover. His protested that JAGMOHAN was ONE name & he should be designated “J.Grover” but babudom  was not impressed).