What the Vaidyan Prescribed and the Patient Desired!

By Sreekumar Raghavan
In my childhood days in Thiruvananthapuram, I was very much scared of going to
a hospital- the smell of the surgical spirit, the sight of blood and ofcourse
the scary syringe wielding nurses. I wondered why they were called angels!
Once, a small piece of sharp rock flew and hit my ankle when I passed by a
worker who was hitting a rock hard with a hammer to break it into pieces for
construction purposes. A piece of flesh went off from my leg and I had to be
immediately taken to the nearby General Hospital. At the Emergency Room, a
nurse and an attendant said it will have to be stitched and without anaesthesia
it was indeed a nightmare. I don't know how much I shouted and cried. I was in
fifth standard and for next fifteen days I didn't have to attend school as the
stitch had to be taken off after five days and wound had to be healed. I
remember my mom getting me a glass of lemon juice immediately after this ordeal,
otherwise I would have fainted. Lot of onlookers came seeing my plight and
sympathised with me.
At a still younger age, I
remember being carried away by my mother in an emergency situation when my head
was injured in a fall while playing with my brother at home. There was only one
prescription- get it stitched that too without any anaesthesia. The old doc who
did the job was full of confidence and I am sure he might have been just an
MBBS with experience. A far cry from the modern times, when even minor
surgeries are referred to senior surgeons.
The Vaidyan and Kashayam
It is not quite unusual for boys
to fall sick or sustain injuries while falling but my greatest fear was going
to a hospital. And it was indeed a
pleasure to visit a homeo doctor who would give some sugar-coated pills which
we would eagerly consume. One occasion, knowing my fear of hospitals, my father
took me to a local vaidyasala (ayurvedic dispensary) when I had a swelling in
my eyelid. Compared to a hospital, the Vaidyasala with its rich stock of ‘arishtams’
and ‘kashayams’ didn’t scare me . That is not the case with ‘arishtams’ that
are difficult to gulp down the throat.
The chief Vaidyan in the vaidyasala who looked similar to our renowned
Malayalam actor of yesteryears Thilakan looked at me very seriously and asked
what is my problem. I said I can't open my eyes because of this swelling. Then
he looked closely and said this is 'kakkotti' or 'kunkuru'. Then he opened a
bottle and out came a few pills whose colour was light brown. He said it should
be rubbed against a stone specially made for it by first making the stone wet.
This will help create a brown paste that has to be applied to the affected area
in my eyelid. Indeed, the next day morning the swelling had subsided- no pain,
no medicine or injection! I was told that the local Vaidyan had learned the
profession from his parents and not from any Ayurveda college.
I used to like the ‘Kooshmandarasayanam’ that my mother gave me for better growth and development quite worried about my skinny frame at that time. This rasayanam is supposed to be made of natural herbs and quite unlike the artificially stuffed nutritional supplements given to children these days.
The Great Indian Vaidyasala
Go to any Indian town or village,
despite all the super-speciality and multi-speciality hospitals you will find
homeopaths, ayurvaids,unani and naturopaths getting good number of patients to
remain in their profession. In one way, this provides a choice for the patients
and eases the burden on our otherwise overloaded public health system.
My Uncle who is no more (elder
brother of my mother) was a doctor (more precisely a licensed medical
practitioner-LMP). His qualification was a pharmacy diploma after 10th standard
and might have worked for a decade in Government Medical College. There was a
provision in the 1960's for paramedical staff to become LMPs based on their
experience and passing a written exam. He left government service and started
his own dispensary in the temple town of Ettumanoor which attracted large
number of patients. His pleasing manners and ability to diagnose routine
diseases was something even the present day MBBS doctors would envy. We used to
observe this when we went on vacations to his house and stayed there. Me and my
brother suffered from itches formed all over the body as an allergic reaction
to playing on mud. My uncle and my cousin sister were the people who dressed
the wounds and took injections daily to overcome it.
In the 1980's his dispensary business began to wane with the arrival of new breed
of MBBS doctors but he managed to get a posting in AVT Estate in Thamarassery
towards the fag end of his career. There again he was seen as God by the
workers and employees of the estate. His pleasing manners and diagnostic skills
were of great help here again. And he always had the option to refer
complicated cases to nearby district hospital or medical college.
Now the modern medicine
practitioners are worried about the new National Medical Commission Bill that
will enable homoeopaths and ayurvaids to practice modern medicine by doing a
bridge course of six months. I am not
competent enough to comment on it. But I would say that any foreigner may be
astounded by the variety of medical practitioners in India including bogus ones
who are caught from time to time. Recently, in Azhikode, a spiritual person was
attracting thousands of patients daily for diseases as complex as cancer and
all that he gave was a powder and a local channel had aired some news about his
magical powers. Among his patients included educated people, IAS officials,
judges, businessmen as well as common people! In Kochi, a bogus doctor who was
a specialist in piles surgery and treatment was caught a few years ago and his hospital sealed.
But there was one doctor in Trivandrum whom I used to consult for my son. His
basic qualification was in homoeo (BHMS) but he went on to take additional
degrees in modern medicine and Ayurveda. With the result he could practice all
the three systems of medicine which made him busy throughout the day.
In many places even with adequate
hospital facilities, people still go to a medical shop, tell the symptoms to
the pharmacist and get medicines for everyday ailments. When my wife, a pharmacist,
ran a retail medical shop business in suburban Trivandrum, we used to have such
customers willing to pop up over-the-counter drugs or even prescription drugs.
The reason was to save on money and time going to see a doctor in a hospital!
In my childhood, our shelves at home were filled with all sort of medicines -ayurveda,
homeo, modern medicine and herbs. My mother had a problem called ‘Vatham’ for
which she seemed to have first consulted an allopath and not satisfied went for
Ayurveda. And for some reason, she also used to take homeo. Ultimately, this resulted
in several half-consumed medicine bottles which had to be ultimately thrown away
on expiry.
Why Vaidyans and Doctors Hate Each Other
You might have observed that
modern medicine doctors have an intense dislike or aversion to other systems of
medicine. Likewise, the homeo and alternate systems practitioners dissuade patients
from going to modern medicine. I don’t know why they don’t develop a healthy
respect for each other. Each system of medicine has its own merits and demerits.
I was struggling with sinusitis since college days and one ENT specialist even
suggested surgery for correcting my deviated nasal septum. I might have
consumed lot of anti-biotics and even tried Ayurveda kashayams. But I found the
best cure from a homeopath who happened to be my relative. He was able to cure
this persistent trouble in six months.
Dr MS Valiathan, the renowned cardiac surgeon and founder director of Sree Chitra
Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences spent a major part of his retired life researching
and writing about Ayurveda. His book “Charaka Samhita” is an excellent rendering
of the main teachings of Charaka especially his understanding of the human
anatomy and surgical practices. That
shows the greatness of this gifted surgeon who was willing to look for goodness
in other systems of medicine.
Or take the case of Medimix Soaps
owner Dr AV Anoop starting a new multi-speciality Ayurveda hospital in Kochi combing
the traditional Ayurveda practices with the best diagnostics tools of modern
medicine. (Read: https://tinyurl.com/yyj9ntrd).
When my father-in-law was diagnosed with retinopathy due to uncontrolled diabetes and couldn’t read a word, the opthalmologists recommended laser treatment which may also burn away good cells in the retina. That was when somebody suggested an Ayurveda doctor specialised in ophthalmology in Trivandrum. We consulted her and she advised two weeks of inpatient treatment consuming Kashayams, doing ‘dharas’ (oil based treatment) and other procedures. To our relief, his eye sight was restored and now can read and also watch television without much discomfort.
I
remember a tourism department seminar on Kerala Heritage organised two decades
ago in which several speakers talked about out architecture, nature, art and
traditions. Most of the Kerala traditions such as going to temples had multiple
benefits other than the spiritual. The women wake up early in the morning, take
bath and go to a temple. And the priest gives ‘prasadom’ which consists of
flowers and also tulsi leaves. Women put it on their hair and it has medicinal
properties which keeps them healthy and free from common ailments. The aal maram or the banyan tree is believed to
emit ‘ozone’ and hence good for calming the mind. The speaker said that
psychiatrists have the habit of putting a small refill of ozone in the air-conditioner
in their clinic so that it calms the mind of the patient. (The scientific part
of these I am not too sure).
Reality Check
The National Medical Commission
Bill has already raised controversies and protests across India. Despite all
the talk of advances in medicine and surgical practices most of the places in
our country are still served by the kind of people I have mentioned but all of
them may not be quacks nor all of them competent in doing their job. As can be
seen from the several news reports including the recent one from Kottayam
Medical College about a woman wrongly diagnosed with blood cancer and given
chemotherapy, all is not well with the allopathic practitioners as well.
In an article in Malayala Manorama, Dr A Marthandan Pillai, a renowned neurosurgeon
and former national President of Indian Medical Association says there are only
5000 vacancies of doctors to be filled up in primary health centres in India
and this can well be done by increasing seats in government colleges. The sad
part is that medical practitioners themselves are not aware of some of the
ground realities about how the common man views diseases and treatment. What I
feel is we need a diversified system of medicine that caters to the
requirements and most important is affordability and accessibility especially
in rural areas.
Tailpiece: Kerala Government was the first to come up with the revolutionary
idea of ayurvedic students to be taught surgery in final year along with MBBS
students when A C Shanmughadas was the Health Minister which was vehemently
opposed by MBBS students. India Government has gone far beyond what A C Shanmughadas
envisaged and enabling homeopaths and ayurvaids to practice modern medicine.
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