The Marvelous Prayer….
The first heart beat….didn’t sound clear (a 6 years old child).
As a child I was roaming here and there with my toys in my hand when, with great difficulty, my aunt managed to catch hold of me .I was enjoying her hug, her warmth with which she held me, completely unaware that I was not actually quite normal .Then there was that one abnormal HEART BEAT which she discovered about me. The uneven toy like sound which she noticed in the way my heart was beating. And that’s how I was diagnosed with Ventricular septal Defect-sometimes referred to as ‘hole in the heart’.
With the diagnosis , a 6 year old was now left from toys to medical checkups ,doctor
visits ,injections,...O! And I still remember the injections pinching in my body and those aimless crying…! The only treatment of the defect was a surgery or more aptly An Open Heart Surgery!
I used to hate the hospital, its vibe ,just hate it. I could feel the gloominess of such an area with so much suffering. My only trick was to cry ..cry ..cry in front of my parents so that they would take me home. But ,all my crying were vague because my parents, as every parent, wanted their daughter to be perfectly normal and healthy. Days passed, with more regular checkups, injections ,glucose drips making me more weak and dull(I can clearly recall the weakness despite being a child).And then came the official day of my Surgery !!
As my father narrates till now , my OT time(time to enter the operation theater) was 7 in the
morning .I remember the day being bright and clear .There was a lot going on that day around me with just the start of the day…Nurses , doctors , parents , and few relatives surrounding me . I remember the fear and a few tears in my mother’s eyes ,completely unaware of the reason behind them .It was time to take me in the OT ,on the stretcher with my father holding my hand ,and the doctor leading the ward boy towards our destination.
We entered the OT , they allowed my father too with me inside, as I was just a coy 6 year old.
I was again given an injection . It was an anesthesia ,(my father ‘s side of story)
I was subconscious and I started reciting something as soon as the Doc started the whole
procedure .Everyone was a little taken aback as the reaction of an anesthesia is quite
strong, especially ,on a child, and I was reciting something. That’s when my father figured my
murmuring out which was basically THE PRAYER I used to recite in the morning assembly at
my school .My father tells us that I recited the whole prayer continuously repeatedly for 6 long hours, until the whole procedure .When my father told everyone around that is was the school prayer he recalls that they all were filled with positivity and confidence . That’s why I call it THE MARVELOUS PRAYER ,actually everyone around called it so later.
The surgery was successful and today I am nostalgically writing this story at 27 years of age….!!
