It is bad to be taken advantage of...

It is bad to be taken advantage of...

Vijay Gopichandran


It is bad to be taken advantage of. But it is worse to be denied when there is a genuine need. When I was a post-graduate trainee, there used to be a system in the hospital where I worked, in which the doctors could write off the bills of needy patients. The hospital was extremely busy and very famous for its maternity services. So, women from far and beyond would queue up in the delivery room to have a safe delivery. The delivery charges were highly subsidized. Many women could not afford even the subsidized rates, and their husbands and families would seek help from the junior doctors to have their bills reduced or waived completely. The biggest dilemma faced by the junior doctor would be whether the woman’s family is telling the truth about their financial status or not. It was one such scenario, where the mother of a woman who had recently delivered in the hospital by an emergency cesarean section, had come to me asking me to waive the hospital fee. The nurse sitting next to me in the station where I sat writing the discharge summaries whispered to me, “Yesterday I saw this lady decked up in a rich saree and wearing gold ornaments on her ear and nose and today she is pretending to be poor. See, she is even wearing an old saree and has removed all her ornaments to make you believe that she is poor.” I was completely enraged. There was no time for performing detailed socio-economic analysis and I trusted what the nurse said. I refused to write off the bills. I did not tell the lady that I just learned from the colleague that she is a con artist. But I felt angry and disgusted inside my mind. Those were very busy days and there was no time for thinking and reflection on these things. So, life just moved on. The next day, after the outpatient clinic was over, I was all ready to go to my room and crash, after a 36-hour long duty shift which I had just pulled off and I was summoned to the room of the head of the department (HoD) where I was working.


My HoD is a calm, composed, mature, balanced, intelligent, kind, compassionate man. He greeted me with a warm smile and said, “Let us go talk outside in the bridge”. There used to be a little bridge connecting the hospital campus and the department, under which was supposed to be a small stream. In all my three years of working in the hospital during my post-graduate training, I have never seen water in that stream. But the bridge there was a nice place. It is a cool place to sit on and have a contemplative moment. My HoD and I stood there. He took out his cigarette and as he smoked, he started talking to me general things about hospital and work.


You would have understood from my description of my HoD that I have immense respect for him. So the very moment that I realized that I had been summoned by him my post-duty fatigue had vanished. I literally ran to his room from the hospital eager to have a few moments with him. I was lapping up every second of the honor it was to stand there by his side on the little bridge and have his full and undivided attention.


He said, “last evening you discharged a lady called Podhumani. Do you remember her?” Of course, I remembered her from her name which meant “enough”. She was the sixth daughter born to a couple who had 5 daughters but kept having children so that they could have at least one son. So, when she was born, they decided to name her “enough”. This young girl was carrying the neglect of a lifetime, as the unwanted burden on her family, in her name. She was the one whose mother had tried to con me into waiving her bill the previous evening when I was writing discharges in the nursing station. If the nurse hadn’t alerted me, I would have caved in. So, I was wondering why my HoD was talking to me about her. “Podhumani’s father is an old patient of mine. He suffered from leprosy and was under my treatment 20 years ago. He has completely recovered and lives normally now. The family is extremely poor, and I know them very well. So, when you refused to sign their waiver, they came directly to me to my home. I invited them to dinner. We all had dinner together and then I signed off the waiver for him. Now, I want to ask you why you refused to waive the fee for them.”


By now I was completely embarrassed. “Oh my God! I refused to waive a fee for a friend of the HoD! What did I do?”, I thought to myself. I told him what the nurse sitting next to me in the station had told me. I told him that I was misled into believing that the mother was dressed in a rich manner the previous day and so must be affordable. I was led to believe that she was wearing old clothes and had removed her jewelry just to make a point to me about financial status. My HoD had a hearty laugh after hearing this and added. “What month is this?” It was late September and it was the season of Navratri and time of the year called Purattasi. Usually, temples in the region have festivals and celebrations during that time. Podhumani’s mother was a temple performer. So, she would rent rich-looking costumes and fake jewelry to wear for her performances. She had come to the hospital the previous day straight from a temple performance and the nurse had seen her all decked up. But she was dressed normally in her routine dress when she had come to ask me for the waiver. When my HoD explained all this to me, I wished that the bridge under my foot just fell and I disappeared from there. I was so ashamed and embarrassed. I did not know what to say. I just stood there staring at my feet.


My HoD put off his cigarette and started walking back towards his chamber. I started walking right behind him. He said, “I understand the reason behind this whole episode. I would just like to say one important thing to you. It is ok if thousands of criminals go scot-free, but not even one innocent should be punished. It is ok if thousands of affordable people con you into giving them waivers, but not even one genuinely deserving needy person should go away from you without your help.” Those words of his stay with me till date.  


During my clinic days on Sundays, patients keep coming from far away way past the routine clinic timings. My clinic staff sometimes comment, “Sir, don’t see these patients. They are coming late just for the sake of avoiding the crowd and they know very well that you won’t go without seeing them. So, they are coming and catching up with you just at the time when you are ready to go for lunch” They advise me that the patients are trying to take advantage of me. But every time this happens, I only think of my HoD and what he said, “It is bad to be taken advantage of. But it is worse to be denied when there is a genuine need.”