A patient and guinea pig

Lal Singh

COVID-19 has taught us many things, but the most important are the three ‘Ts’ — test, trace and treat. A related experience was forgotten all these years, but the importance of clinical tests lives on in my memory.

During my sea service, I was on a voyage to the UK and Europe. After discharging and loading at European ports, when my ship was at the port of Dundee in Scotland, I started having bouts of high fever. The port medical officer who examined me recommended my isolation and admission to a hospital. Since the ship’s stay in Dundee was quite long, I was admitted to King George V Hospital. As the tests showed no exact cause of my problem, my blood sample was sent to a tropical diseases laboratory in London. The report confirmed an abscess on my liver due to amoebic infection, which is caused by the presence of faeces on leafy vegetables like spinach and horse-radish.

As my treatment was going to last for a few weeks, I was signed off from the ship, and handed the charge to my second engineer, till another chief engineer was sent from the Mumbai head office. In the hospital, I was kept in an isolated room because of my infection.

Before and after the start of treatment, my blood sample was taken for tests. But when I noted that my blood was being taken too often, sometimes every few hours, I asked the attending doctor, who explained that some medical students/interns were taking my blood sample for their own study. The frequent needle pricking in my veins discomforted me a lot. It was such an ordeal for me that when another girl student came and was about to take my blood sample, I became impatient, and told her off. She yanked off the strap around my arm and left.

But the matter didn’t end there. After some time, she along with some other students came outside my room and told the medical staff attending to me that they won’t allow them to attend to me. It was clarified to her that the word guinea pig, which I had used to describe my condition, actually meant a rodent which is used for clinical tests, and not intended to hurt the sensibilities of anyone.

A truce was called, and I gave my sample to the now smiling student.

Whenever she passed by my room, she made it a point to clarify that she had not come for a sample, but just to wish me speedy recovery.

My treatment at the hospital lasted for about six weeks, after which I was discharged and flown back to Mumbai, where my company’s doctor advised me some convalescence leave before resuming duty.