The Man With The Broken Leg

It has been a couple frustrating days at Prem Dan. Yesterday a sister brought in a man they she found on the street. He had a rather sad story. Five days previous he had fallen asleep on the sidewalk (which is not uncommon in Kolkata) and his right calf had been run over by a car. He was taken to a hospital where they put some stitches in a cut above his eye and wrapped his very swollen right leg with a tensor bandage and sent him promptly back to the street. The sister found him in severe pain 4 days later.

He arrived in the room where we change dressings and I cleaned off his cut on his eye and proceeded to look at the leg. When I removed the tensor bandage I saw blisters; most of which were torn open and bleeding, covering most of his ankle and calf. It is not uncommon for severe swelling to cause blisters but I had never seen it to this degree. In addition to this it was obvious that at least his tibia and probably his fibula were broken above his ankle.

The man needed to go to a hospital to have x-rays taken and his fracture set. The sisters told me though that this wouldn’t happen because of social and economic barriers in India. (In largely Hindu India it is understood that bad things happen to people because of bad karma and to help fix them will result in bad karma for oneself. This is one reason that India, despite enough wealth to plan to land a man on the moon in the next couple years, struggles to provide basic food and medical care to much of its population.) We will have to make due at least until next Wednesday when a doctor volunteers his time to see patients at Prem Dan and may be able to get him x-rays.

The second best option then would be to construct him a splint from fiberglass or plaster to at least stabilize the fracture. The sisters though, did not think that any plaster was available and advised that we just dress the open blisters for now. It was all a very frustrating experience because the man could be helped by what I would consider fairly basic medical care. With out good care the man may be a cripple for life.

Today thankfully, the sisters found some plaster and I was able to make a splint for the man to try to keep his leg straight and relatively pain free until he can see the doctor next week. Hopefully despite the system the man can get enough care to enable him to heal and go back to his normal life. If you think of it, pray for him that the kingdom will break in and his leg might heal well despite sub-optimal care.

A Physician's Prayer

Dear Lord, the great physician,
I kneel before you since every good and perfect gift must come from you.
I pray give skill to my hands,
clear vision to my mind,
kindness and sympathy to my heart.
Give me singleness of purpose,
strength to lift at least a part of the burden of my suffering fellow me,n
and a true realization of the privilege that is mine.
Take from my heart all guile and worldliness
that with the simple faith of a child I may rely on you.
Amen.

-Marcus Herz (Prayed each morning before changing dressings at Prem Dan)

Later…