The Last Wish - Please Come Back

It has been more than 11 years now that I have been working in the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department. 

Time and again I see instances where an equally old husband/wife comes all alone with their old ailing spouse, a patient who requires an ICU admission, a quick decision to be put on a ventilator, get thrombolysed for a stroke, be immediately taken to Cath Lab for a heart attack or to the OT for emergency surgery. On further inquiry, the picture becomes clear that their children are well settled abroad, leaving the old couple back home to fend for themselves, only sending them money for their existence.

Many times I have myself spoken on phone to the son/daughter of the patient, staying thousands of miles away, briefing them of their parent’s condition and receiving the same reply, “Please go ahead do your best, whatever it takes. Don’t worry about the cost of the treatment & the investigations.” Seldom have I heard anyone say, “Doctor, you proceed, we will be there soon.” It really hurts me to the core…. At the end of the day, I feel that the only people who can leave everything behind (for want of money/better quality of life) and never look back at their own parents, are those who are selfish and self-centred.

With the following few lines, I have only tried to bring out the pain, the feeling and the thought process of such a patient lying on the bed, right before my eyes in my A&E.

I’m weak now, I can’t even walk,
You became all busy, with no time to talk,
Education gave you wings, I showed you the way,
Our life is difficult now, alone we stay,
Please come back… Please come back

The money you sent, few phone calls you made,
Never made us happy, wish together we stayed,
Not playing with your kids, not meeting your wife,
What wrong did we do, to deserve such a life?
Please come back… Please come back

I fight to breathe now, with pain in my chest,
Remembering old times, I did my best,
I might die soon, do you really bother?
After I’m gone, who' ll look after your mother,
Please come back… Please come back

These tubes and pipes on me, really make me think,
Wish I could see you all, and not even blink,
In my dying moments, by my bedside you stand,
Consider it’s my last wish, come hold my hand,
Please come back... Please come back

(06/12/12)