It was already several hours past afternoon. Waiting outside the consultant's room in a Siliguri hospital, the 22 year-old Ranjan's mind was imagining many things. Foremost on his mind was, “how just a glass cut could go so deep as if to cut the nerves and tendons." And what would eventually happen if the nerve or the tendon does not heal, will I lose my hand? Is it possible to put them back together?"

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Ranjan had dropped out of school and worked in a garment shop in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. In the family of four which had his father, mother and his newly wed wife he and his father were the earning members. Though his father Ramachandra had his own small garment shop, Ranjan worked in a different shop in a different part of the town. He had lost his earlier job during the covid lockdown and as his father's small garment shop did not have any buyers either, the family had lived off their savings during the two year period. 

When the third wave passed, he got a job again and started working. And after a few months he found a new job in the same district with a better salary, while the work more of or less remained the same. Ranjan's father Ramachandra though had a shop but preferred to sell garments on his bicycle and going from street to street selling on a bicycle, as it was more profitable. Ramachandra was happy that his son had got a new job with a better salary. 

Ranjan’s first day of the new job was to be on August 12. After taking blessings from his parents and taking leave from his newly wed wife, Ranjan started on his bicycle to the shop which was around 3 kms from his home. He reached the shop much before time and started the routine of cleaning the various shelves. 

"It was a routine work for me. There are these large shelves covered by glass panes in the shop. And some of these I would not be able to reach. So I put a stool and was cleaning the inside of one of the large glass panes when I lost balance and fell. My hand was stuck in the shelf and as I fell my hand slid along the sharp edge of the glass pane," he said.

"The next thing I noticed was a huge cut on my right hand and blood spurting out. As a reflex action I covered the cut with my left hand and rushed to the nearest doctor's clinic, “Ranjan said.

"The moment the local doctor saw the wound he immediately told him to visit the local hospital in the town", Ranjan said. There also he received the same reply.  By this time Ranjan's father had also reached the hospital. "They told us that the cut was very deep and may have cut the nerve or the tendons, so we told to go to a large hospital in Jalpaiguri.” We went there they dressed the wound and told us to go to a Siliguri. We had already travelled for almost three hours from one hospital to another and from Jalpaiguri, after an hours travel, we finally reached Siliguri. 

The surgeons took one look at the wound and took Ranjan for an immediate surgery. After around an hour the surgeons in the Siliguri emerged from the theatre and told Ramachandra that they did what they could and they have to return after a month and nothing much could be said. 

"Soon I started noticing that I could not move my middle finger, index finger and the thumb. And they would feel cold all the time," Ranjan said.  Without the use of these three fingers Ranjan lost the use of the hand. “I could not pick up any article, or hold anything in my right hand. Even riding the cycle would be only with my left hand," he said. The right hand for Ranjan had almost become useless. 

"We went back to the Siliguri hospital and they told that they could not do anything about it and that we would be required to visit some other hospital," we were distraught. Some of my friends told me that it may cost anywhere between Rs 100,000 to 200,000. This was something we could never afford," he said.

It was then that Ramachandra remembered about one of his friends who had gone to Sai Baba hospital somewhere in Andhra Pradesh and had spoken highly about it earlier. He then reached out to him. "My friend directed me to the local Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation official, who briefed me all about the hospital and told me to take an appointment. I sent the mail and got the appointment," he said. Then the father and son made their way to the hospital. 

"We already knew that the treatment at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences was totally free of cost for everybody, so we were very happy, but real surprise was waiting for us at Puttaparthi. We reached Puttaparthi and then we passed by this huge, magnificent building and thought that it was a huge temple. We took our accommodation and then next day we started asking people around where the hospital was. They looked at us quizzically, that we were standing in front of the hospital and still asking for directions. It was then that we both realised that the beautiful building we thought was a temple, was in fact the hospital we came to visit. We both were in awe stuck," Ramachandra said.

"The surgeons and the nurses were very kind. It was such a huge hospital with a long corridor, but nobody would ever get lost in the hospital as people are always there to help," Ranjan said. "The surgeon examined the hand and told us to get admitted the next day and we were assured that the functioning of the hand will be back," he added.  

According to Senior Plastic Surgeon Dr. Gurumurthy, the patient was operated under General Anaesthesia and was operated through the old scar injury. All the tendons and the medial nerve were repaired and the wound was closed with a drain. The wound was then closed in layers. The patient had an uneventful recovery and underwent physiotherapy. He was also taught the exercises he was supposed to do once he went home. After three months he is again able to use his hand. 

"I have gone back to doing all the things I was able to like earlier," Rajan said.  In these three months my life has completely transformed," he added. 

Speaking about the hospital both Ranjan and Ramachandra felt that they had not seen a place like this. "Ones’ own family will not take care of their members as the people in the hospital do," they said. "From the bottom of our hearts we would like to thank Swami for having built this hospital where people like ourselves could get free treatment," they said. 

"Not just the poor even middle class people these days are unable to afford the steep cost of medical care. For all such persons this hospital is a blessing. Had it not been for this hospital, I do not know what I would have done," Ranjan said. 

Ranjan's father Ramamchandra, still in awe of the hospital and the place, feels like making Puttaparthi his home. "I feel like staying back here permanently. I know that is not possible but I was taking to the members of the Sai Organisation back home, so I have decided to come back to the hospital for seva sometime," he said.