CHAPTER 33- Royal Hospital.
July 1538, Royal Hospital, Dharanikota.
"Be still and let me clean the w..wound first!" Hemadri Sastry said to his patient, as he attended to him. The patient was a young male in his late teens. He was injured by a farm buffalo, causing a cut wound, leading to a stab, on the lower back.
"Will I be alright Doctor? I don't want to die before I marry my Shanthi!" The patient, cried while suffering from the pain caused by the injury. He was already pale from blood loss, and further excitation of it would not do him any favors.
"If this wound doesn't kill y..you, I will! Stop moving so m..much and let me do my job! Nurse hold him!" Hemadri reprimanded the young patient, causing him to temporarily settle down, while the nurse held him from moving.
Hemadri used a cloth dipped in concentrated vinegar(Sirka), to clean around the affected area. The concentration of Vinegar was a simple task and only required boiling it to reduce it. He ordered every doctor in the city to use it, after seeing its effectiveness.
It was such a simple technique. Clean the wound before and after the treatment, and see the infection rate go down. When he first received the crafty tip from the king, he dismissed it as another wannabe doctor's advice from a privileged idiot.
But he didn't dare utter those words out loud and dutifully implemented them, not out of respect for the king, but out of sheer terror. That was the time when random rich people were getting murdered, all over the kingdom, just because they supported the wrong king.
He knew how those few months were as he was at the front line. His master, whom he despised, was one of the first ones to get killed. He did not care about his master's death, but the death of so many innocent people, including children, pained his heart so so much.
He was a doctor. His job was to save as many people as possible. But the man he was supposed to work under, was killing so many of them. Anybody would feel conflicted. He can never like such a man.
When he started using the Vinegar, he was initially confused when the infection rates did start to go down. Infections were very tough to cure because there was nothing they could do about it.
A cut? They can stitch it back. A flesh wound? They can cure? Even surgeries, they can manage. After the treatment, if the patient dies from an infection caused by the treatment, all of it would go to waste.
Despite being skeptical, he followed the other instructions given by the king, which were also written on the notes he was given. He mandated daily hot water baths for all the hospital staff. Regular cleaning of the hospital, and Hot water cleaning of all the medical tools used by the doctors.
What he found out after two months of meticulous observation of the thousands of daily incidents the hospital dealt with, shocked him. While they still cannot treat the infection of wounds when they occur, the practices they follow decrease the likelihood of infection happening in the first place.
Sure, they still lost patients from infections, and various other things they had very little knowledge about, but they were now doing their part to prevent it. This greatly increased his respect for the KIng.
He can never like the man personally, but he figured, respecting the man was the least he could do. When the king asked him to be a member of the 'advisory council', he was initially reluctant but accepted it, especially after the bombshell revelation, he got from the king.
"AGhh! Please, doctor! I do not want to die!" The patient screamed through the pain. Hemadri had already cleaned around and inside the stab wound. The cloth they used to plug the bleeding was now dirty.
"I know you are in p..pain. Next time I do not r..recommend, working so close to the horns of a b..buffalo." the doctor said, as he cleaned the blood using a clean cloth.
"Ramu was innocent. 'Ouch!' I was the one who stood in the way of his horns. 'Sss!' He only wanted head pats and treats!" The patient strongly defended the animal which had caused his injury. Hemadri barely understands animal lovers. Sure they are useful, but they treated them the same as humans, and sometimes more.
"Agh!"
"The cleaning is over now. It was n..necessary, otherwise the 'microbes' will a..affect you." Hemadri spoke to the patient to distract him from the pain caused by the needles during stitching.
In recent times, Hemadri often found himself thinking back to the book the king had given him, the last time he visited his hospital. He couldn't stop himself from trying to connect everything he knew back to that book. 'A theory of germs and their influence on health'.
Not many people would experience what he felt after reading the book. It was like a whole new world was before him. Everything he knew before, about his creed can now be viewed from a new lens.
A world invisible to the naked eye. Creatures so tiny that, the human eye cannot even comprehend them. These tiny creatures caused diseases. They caused many good things too.
Everything in that book was purely theoretical. There was no possible way to see these creatures, at least not yet. The book mentioned a 'microscope' which can be used to see them. However, that was also theoretical, at least for now.
Even if the book cannot prove them yet, Hemadri became a firm supporter of the Germ theory. Sure he could not see them, but he could see their effects on the world. He was not that stupid to blindly trust it, but this was the most reasonable and feasible explanation he had ever seen.
It also explained why sterilization was working. The conc. Vinegar and hot water were killing these tiny creatures, and reducing the risk of diseases. They could not do anything about the already existing infections, as they could not kill them. If only they could kill the microbes, inside the body. Such a thing could save so many lives.
While thinking about Germ theory, Hemadri with the help of his trusted nurse and assistant Jayanthi, completed the final stitches of the surgery. They cleaned it once again and wrapped the whole thing in a bandage with some herbal medicine.
"That does it. The surgery is c.. complete. Take some bedrest here at the hospital an..and don't mess with the stitches. Jayanthi here will clean and reapply them every two days. T...take care, and don't do it again." Hemadri said as he removed his leather gloves, and washed his hands.
Another surgery was complete. He could only hope that the patient would recover well. There was nothing more he could do now.
He left the surgery room to go to his office. He had been working since the morning and needed a small break for himself. But as he approached his office he was surprised to find the Royal guards there. 'What are they doing here?'
They parted for him and he entered his office. Inside, Hemadri found the expected culprit. "Your Majesty! You should have summoned me. I would have visited you, as is my d..duty!" the doctor quickly said as he bowed to the king.
Rudra Deva was sitting there in the main chair, reading the notes Hemadri had written on the book he gave him. The king's book was now filled with notes and with writable palm leaves, in it. He was quite immersed in it when Hemari entered.
"Ah! You are finally free now. The surgery had gone well I presume? I did hear the patient's screams in the middle, is everything all right?" The king expressed his concerns regarding the patient.
To Hemadri, it was confusing. All his life, because of his master, he grew up observing the previous king and his corrupt court. To him, these people did not care about common people. The king, a prince at the time was detached from the matters of court, and away from the public eye.
But every time Hemadri met the king. He showed remarkable patience and care for the normal people. Nothing like the previous king. Yet this man was responsible for more deaths than the sins of the previous royal court combined.
To him, the king was an enigma. The puzzle that was unsolvable to him. He often struggled with public interactions and his speech disability did not help. Yet he was given this position by the king.
"It went well, Your M..majesty. The poor man had gotten stabbed while w..working with his farm animal. I stitched him up pretty w..well." Hemadri informed the king, who thoughtfully nodded.
"It is good that you are still treating patients, Hemadri. You have enough doctors under you that, you can make them do these tasks, yet here you are, helping them with all you can." Rudra praised the doctor, who beamed under it.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. It means a lot c..coming from you. Is there something important you wish to di..discuss?" Hemadri asked Rudra, assuming he visited there for secrecy.
"Oh, it is nothing important. I did not wish to disturb you when you are with your patients. Besides, I quite like traveling outside that stone prison. I was cooped up there working with those blacksmiths on the muskets for the last few days." Rudra answered back to him.
Hemadri cringed internally when he thought of those. Muskets, Deathsticks, Firespitters, boom booms, however, it was called, he was not a fan. The entire advisory council was taken to the range to show the test firing of a flintlock, recently and he was not impressed.
He was a doctor for god's sake. He was already receiving a few soldiers, who had their fingers blown off from a barrel explosion, and one guy who was shot and couldn't be saved in time. The wound caused by a round projectile caused a gnarly wound on both the entry point and the exit point. Not to mention the internal wounds.
With the approval of Rudra, who was working with blacksmiths at the time, he ordered fire tests on some pigs, to find out more about the gunshot wounds. Although he was not happy about it, a dead animal is better than a dead soldier.
All he can say is that when the day inevitably comes when an enemy uses these weapons against the kingdom, the battlefield casualties would skyrocket. Until then, he pitied those, who will have faced Dharanikota's Wrath.
"So Hemadri, How is your first month working in the advisory council?" The king asked him suddenly. Oh. This meeting was about feedback.
"H..honestly, Your Majesty, I feel out of place there. For some of us, we don't even have a proper task. It would do well to have an agenda to work towards." Hemadri answered honestly.
There was not much to discuss about medicine in the council meetings, and the few times they had gathered, he felt out of place. If it was a more active role, he could see himself in it.
"I received the same feedback from others. Think of these as growing troubles. We can start yearly agenda meetings after we get the individual departments properly set up. I am thinking that starting next year, we can start those?" Rudra replied.
But before he could answer back, there was a loud pained scream that came from the hospital lobby. There were shouts from multiple people audible and they seemed urgent. It seemed like something, that needed his attention.
Before he could ask permission to leave, the king stood up to leave and prompted him to follow. "Come on. They need you out there!"
Both of them, followed by the guards, left the room and descended the stairs. The building had a courtyard in the middle to maximize natural lighting, and on it, a few men were standing, surrounded by doctors.
The men were carrying an improvised stretcher, made of cloth, and in it was a pregnant woman. It looked like the water had broken and she was ready to deliver. They brought her here instead of a midwife because, there seemed to be a problem, that he had to figure out quickly.
"Doctor! Doctor! Please, please save my wife and child! The midwives had given up. You are our only hope!" The patient's husband begged, holding Hemadri's hands.
Hemadri while calming down the man, turned to look at the king, who was looking at the patient and his husband with a complicated expression. When he observed that Hemadri, was looking at him, he quickly reverted, and nodded at the doctor, permitting him to leave to his duties. So he did. He asked someone to carry the woman, to the surgery room and took a few doctors with him for assistance.
To Rudra, who had stayed behind, it was a grounding experience. The worried father did not care that a king was there. He begged the Doctor to save her life and that of his unborn child. Not a god, but a man, to save them.
People begged Rudra about their life many times. They begged him to spare them. Or to end their suffering. It was inherently different from the anxious pleading of a loving father. He only now realized the difference.
"AHHHH!" came a pained scream from inside. It was that of the mother.
Childbirth was said to be a very painful process. Without the aid of proper medicine, and equipment, it was also very dangerous. He had the means to fix that. Yet he was wasting time on a weapon.
He was more focused on making a weapon to kill people than making something to save them. Yes, he knew that muskets would also defend them, but that was not the point. There was nothing he could do to help the woman who was now inside, so he took a seat and waited.
"AHHH!" the screams came from inside.
'Tap, tap, tap.' the father paced around the courtyard, anxious about what was happening inside.
Ten hours. It had taken ten hours for Hemadri and the other doctors to come out. It was midnight by that time. Hemadri carried a baby, and gently gave it to the father. They made him sit down and told him the bad news.
The woman was dead. She had twins, and only one baby survived. The mother died of blood loss and shock from the pain. It was relatively good news, as absurd as it seemed.
That was an era where what happened there was common. The average life span was in the twenties. The child mortality rate was abysmal. Rudra knew it was not fair to compare it with modern stats, but he could not help it.
"Your Majesty! You have w..waited?! You shouldn't have." Hemadri said, slightly shocked to see that the king was still here.
"It's all right, Hemadri. I was thinking. I can't fix what happened today or can guarantee that such a thing will not happen in the future. But I think I can make something, that will make your life a lot easier." Rudra replied to the tired doctor.
It was time to make anesthesia.