The nights, when the winter is bidding adieu and the summer is about to arrive, have a great soothing effect on the mind; neither too cold nor too hot, the most comfortable environment you can imagine.
When one such night was just about to end and the morning was about to start, a patient arrived; the parents, carrying the child in the lap, came running. They emphasized that the child was suffering from epileptic fits and insisted upon treating the same.
The mouth of the child was full of foam, eyes rolled upwards, and hands and legs jerked. After securing the IV line, Lopez was provided but the fits still didn’t stop.
In the end, anti-epileptic eptoin medicine was given. The medicine proved to be effective. The fits started to decrease ultimately coming to a standstill. The sedation of the medicine was good enough to make the child fall to sleep. The child woke up in the evening and was spoon-fed with water.
We were so happy that before the convulsion patient could go serious, we have saved him. But there was a very big twist in the tale.
In the next morning, the parents were again standing carrying the child in the lap. This time the child was screaming at the top of his voice.
“Want to go home, want to go home” – were coming out of the mouth of the child.
The child’s behavior was quite surprising and fearful.
“From yesterday only he has become like this. Before that he wasn’t like that.” – his father with a sad face exclaimed. If the child watched anyone else apart from his parents, he used to start screaming.
Due to the fits occurring previous day and the weird behavior next day, we thought that there should be some infection in child’s brain and since the report was absolutely normal, we were pondering on the situation of viral encephalitis. But amidst these thoughts, I and my co-doctor Parth, were skeptical.
We summoned the parents and asked – “Did the child catch fever yesterday? Did the child fall out of bed?”. All the answers were in negation. Dr Parth sternly asked then – “What happened last night such that the child is behaving like this?”
His mother, unable to control herself, expressed – “Doctor Saheb, the child has become dreadful.” She continued – “At the stroke of 3 last night, one sister with long OPEN HAIR opened the door of our ward with a bang. Watching this, my son has become dreadful. Since then, he is crying like hell.”
We were bloody shocked. It felt as if there some horror incident happened previous night. Who was that open haired lady? – we had various questions in our mind. It was necessary to solve this mystery. After contemplating for some time, I and Dr. Parth finally suspected a person, and fortunately, she arrived in our room. I instantly grabbed her and called the child’s father and asked – “Brother, is she the one that night?”. He replied affirmatively – “Yes, after watching her only, he became frightful.” The ghost was caught who was none other than my co-resident – Dr. Hinali.
