Man versus virus: Story of a brave AIDS patient

To

Those close ones who taught me medicine in a way my medical text books and lectures didn’t.

Dear little one,

What worries us most is the manner we would have to answer questions that have probably already begun to baffle your young mind.

Howsoever young we might be, perhaps all of us have “a little Buddha” inside us eager to find out the ways of nature. I am not sure, how we will answer all your questions of this kind in future, but let me today tell you a story of a middle aged lady who literally allowed her body to be used as a clinical learning tool for medics:

The brave Uzma

This lady we are talking of, was wife of a deceased diplomat from some middle-east country. The diplomat, once posted in India, had died of some opportunistic infection with AIDS, and had passed on his infection to his wife.
Uzma as I would prefer to call her was the most amazing AIDS patient I have seen till date. She had an ocular infection with a virus called ‘cytomegalovirus’ seen in an advanced stage of AIDS.
We were around three or four fellows and two students with our consultant. One by one we took turn to peep into her eyes. She had no vision and thus had no clue as to how many prospective examiners were there to see her.
Each examiner would take 5-8 minutes for a proper view. Soon everyone else had finished. I was the one who had to complete her medical records, thus I was required to spend maximum time with her.
Unaware I was the next one in the queue, she assumed a sitting posture on her couch.
It was now that I requested her to lie down again for a while.
“Madam, would you please lie down again for a while…”, I said.
“Oh, so one more is there”, she said and gently lied down again.
Throughout next ten minutes or fifteen, there was no protest, no anxiety or impatience. It was like I was examining a plaster of Paris model. Her serenity was extra ordinary.
She was lively and yet quiet and composed.
I realized that despite her advanced illness and visual handicap, she was still a very confidant lady – someone in total control of her emotions. After her examination, she thanked me and got up from the couch.
While so many of us tend to “absolutize” our minor illnesses as trivial as recurrent cold, here was a lady who had a clear understanding of her problem but refused to be “written off” by life that was all set to defeat her.
Let us salute the lady who has since deceased. I owe my practical education on AIDS to patients such as these.
More stories next time!
Until then,
Goodbye!