Vajpayee: A patient AIIMS will remember forever

  • | Friday | 17th August, 2018

The doctors and other staff of the hospital kept staring at the patient they will remember forever. "If the wait was too long, he would go to South Extension to have lunch," one of them told TOI.During the Emergency, Vajpayee suffered serious injury in his back. Union minister Arun Jaitley , in his Facebook post on Friday, recounted the late PM's interaction with the orthopaedic doctor on duty. Later, he developed dementia A team of doctors from AIIMS regularly visited his Krishna Menon Marg residence to ensure that the BJP stalwart's vitals were maintained well. This poem, Jaitley added, became one of the most distributed pamphlets during the Emergency.When Vajpayee became the PM, doctors from AIIMS were deputed as his personal physicians.

NEW DELHI: AIIMS , where Atal Bihari Vajpayee breathed his last, was the late Prime Minister's preferred port of call for any health issue since the 1970s when he was a member of Parliament. As his mortal remains left the hospital on Thursday, memories of this long association started swirling in the minds of many doctors and staff.The BJP patriarch, they said, never threw his weight around when he visited the hospital as an MP and was ready to wait for his turn to see the doctor. "If the wait was too long, he would go to South Extension to have lunch," one of them told TOI.During the Emergency, Vajpayee suffered serious injury in his back. He was brought to AIIMS for treatment while in detention. Union minister Arun Jaitley , in his Facebook post on Friday, recounted the late PM's interaction with the orthopaedic doctor on duty. The doctor asked him if he always sat straight, how could the pain occur." Kya aap jhuk gaye thhe? (Did you bend)," the doctor asked. Jaitley wrote that Vajpayee, without losing his sense of humour despite pain replied in the context of the Emergency: " Jhukna toh seekha nahin doctor sahib. Yun kahiye mud gaye honge . (I haven't learnt to bend doctor. You can say I may have turned)."According to Jaitley, the incident and conversation made Vajpayee, who was a master orator and poet, pen down his famous lines against the Emergency on his hospital bed: " Toot sakte hain magar hum jhuk nahin sakte (we can break but never bend)." This poem, Jaitley added, became one of the most distributed pamphlets during the Emergency.When Vajpayee became the PM, doctors from AIIMS were deputed as his personal physicians. It was their job to do regular check-up and advise him on how to keep healthy.Dr Anoop Misra, then a professor of medicine at AIIMS, was one of Vajpayee's personal physicians. He told TOI the late PM treated all doctors as family. "It was rare for a person of his eminence to not be irritated any time when we went for check-up. He was always smiling," he added.One of the doctors who went to do a fellowship in the US after a brief stint as Vajpayee's personal physician recounted how the late PM's family would send sweets every time someone from their side visited the country.The current director of AIIMS, Dr Randeep Guleria , was associated with Vajpayee for nearly two decades. He, too, started as a personal physician of Vajpayee, but soon become his go-to man when it came to health matters.The former PM had difficulty walking due to arthritis in his right knee for which he underwent replacement surgery in the year 2000. His personal physicians remained in the Mumbai hospital where the procedure was conducted to make sure he recovered well post-surgery.Vajpayee, a diabetic, had one functional kidney. He suffered a stroke in 2009, weakening his cognitive abilities. Later, he developed dementia A team of doctors from AIIMS regularly visited his Krishna Menon Marg residence to ensure that the BJP stalwart's vitals were maintained well. "His home had all essential medical facilities to deal with an emergency situation. But if a detailed investigation was required, Vajpayee would visit AIIMS. He would get back to his residence in a day or two. When he was brought to the hospital on June 11, the same was expected to happen," said an AIIMS doctor.He added that Vajpayee was admitted with kidney tract infection and chest congestion. "Things seemed to be in control initially and there were plans to send him back home soon, but it couldn't happen. We lost him despite our best efforts at 5.05pm on Thursday," the doctor said.When the ambulance carrying Vajpayee's mortal remains left the institute, there was an eerie silence all around. The doctors and other staff of the hospital kept staring at the patient they will remember forever.

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