I was back from office and no one was at home. I took my tea and shuffled through my movie collection, selected  the movie ‘The Great Wall’ and started watching it. At some point my phone rang and I took it. When I picked it up, a scream was heard from the other side. It was Dad and he was screaming “Jiffinnnn come fast Mom has been hit by an auto”. His voice was breaking.

I jumped off from my seat and went to the place where it happened. My mind was racing fast and it was saying to kill that auto driver. How dare he could hit my Mom!!! Just then I saw my car coming from the opposite side. It was raining heavily, they slowed near me and said to come to the hospital. I couldn’t see Mom .I went ahead of them clearing the way as I could.

When I had reached the hospital, my friend dad was there. He said to take her to another hospital as the hospital didn’t have any neurology department. My brain was shutdown and all I was thinking was where they were, as they should have reached by then. They reached after some time. No one in that bloody hospital came to help Mom out of the car. When I opened the door, she was saying something. I tried to talk while she was taken out. She was holding the seat tightly and not letting go of it. Somehow me and my cousin lifted her up and brought her to the casualty. When we laid her on the bed, blood started to flow. The Doctor who came to check saw this and asked us to take her to another hospital. I told her to do some first aid for stopping the blood and then called an ambulance, as I said “we are taking her to another hospital”. When I saw the blood from her brain, my mind was saying “It’s the same wound which was on your friend who passed away a few months away”.

Dad was shivering and was not talking a word. The ambulance came pretty fast. I told everyone who came with Mom to go with the ambulance and that I will take the car and follow them. Ambulance went past when I reached the car and saw it was open with parking lights on and the seats were covered with blood. Somehow I got up and followed the ambulance. On my way, I called my brother, cousin and friends to reach the hospital.By then, the ambulance was not in my sight.

When I reached the hospital, the ambulance was parked near the casualty. I saw my cousin at the bill counter giving them my Mom’s details and paying the amount they have asked. She was in the Emergency room and I went inside. The doctors were rushing towards her as she had started to cry with pain. I was stuck there seeing that. My mind was away as someone started asking me questions, and I could not hear anything. Somehow I came back to reality and realized that the person in front of me was the doctor who was asking me about Mom’s tablets, previous surgeries, medical history etc. He told me to be there. Meanwhile my cousin had also come inside the Emergency room and seeing him I wanted to cry aloud, but somehow I held up. He then talked to the doctors and I just stood there not knowing what to do. By then, a nurse came with Mom’s belongings and said to keep it. Mom has started to scream “Ammaaaa” aloud, when the doctors were trying to figure out where she had injuries. She would scream aloud all the time and this made it difficult for them to identify the wounds. While she was taken to do the CT scans, a nurse came and told me to accompany them. As we lifted her from the trolley to scan, she started to cry in pain. They gave me a jacket and told to hold Mom’s hand so that she would lie still during the scan. She was screaming during the initial scan, and after all the scans were done we went back to the emergency room. By now she was dozed off with drugs and not responding very well.  After a while, she started to shiver and started crying again. As we got the results of the scan, the doctors said “There is a puncture wound in the brain and her pelvic bone is broken, we will be shifting her to Trauma ICU”.

By now everyone had come to the hospital. When I went outside, Dad was sitting there shivering. He was still in shock and some of the people who came there was telling that it was his fault of parking. I went and bought a cup of coffee for dad and told not to listen to anyone, there is nothing to worry, and that she will be okay.

After sometime, she was shifted to Trauma ICU and they allowed us to see her. When I went inside, she was shivering. I had a conversation with the nurse on the dosage of insulin she was taking, the surgeries she had done and told her that I will bring the pills she is taking for diabetics as soon as possible. But the nurse said there is no need of any rush, as it was okay to bring those tomorrow. My brother and cousin said thay they would stay there and as we were not supposed to wait outside the ICU, we had to wait in the waiting hall. They asked me to take dad home and by then it was 2am. On the way back to home, we went to the police station and logged a complaint against the auto. As dad was not able to note down the auto registration number, it was a dead end.

He explained how the accident happened. “It was raining heavily, and as they had only one umbrella, he dropped Mom at the passenger door and went to the driver’s seat.That’s when the auto came and hit mom. She flew away and dropped near the back tyre. The auto stopped and the driver came. I was busy calling out for nearby people to help out and by the time I looked back, the auto and the driver had vanished”

I was praying to God to keep her safe. We reached home, I tried to sleep but my brain was not in a mood to shut down. When it was 5am, I went back to the hospital. Visiting time was from 6am to 8am. I went and saw Mom and she was sleeping peacefully. By then, the head nurse came and told that the senior doctors will be there by 8am and asked me to wait outside until they arrive. I waited at the hallway praying under my breath ‘Hail Mary’. After some time the doctors came and said there is no need for any operations, but that she should be kept under observation for some days. I informed the same to my brother and cousin who were awake during the night, waiting at the hallway, and told them to get some sleep.

On the third day she was shifted to a room. Everytime she tried to move, there was pain, but she had no idea of the accident, and didn’t know where she was. Her memory would come and go often. During the night she will try to remove the drip saying “Why are we here”. She was discharged on the 5th day. The doctors and the physiotherapist told not to mind the pain and asked us to make her walk with that pain, or else she will never walk again. Our first task  was to make her stand and when we helped her to stand she would scream. We had to make her stand with all that pain.

“ It’s so painful to hear the scream of your loved ones and it’s more painful when you’re helpless to do something to ease that pain”.

After a month, we had some improvements. She was now able to stand for a few minutes. We had brought her a wheel chair and we often took her outside to make her feel better. We made her to take baby steps, which resulted in huge screams, and the neighbors would then rush to our home asking what had happened. We hired a physiotherapist to help her, and she was a big help to us. Her exercises were showing good results.

After 5 months……

She is now able to walk without any screaming. The good thing is that she has no recollection of the accident or the hospital days. She still needs some help to walk, I’m sure she will be able to walk without any help in a few months and I’m thankful to GOD for bringing her back to us and giving us the courage to withstand the bad days.