As I sat down to pen this story series, memories came flooding back to when I was a newly joined psychiatry resident doctor in a government hospital. So I was still striking a balance between the nuances of the field, the overflowing patient load and the endless learning.
That is when she was brought in the ward, a 23-year old divorced woman who had been subject to physical abuse at the hands of her ex-husband for years. She was visibly harder to treat with her loud childish screams echoing across wards and her total loss of reality touch owing to her illness of 'Schizophrenia'
But what was remarkable wasn't the severity of her illness, it was the faith of her younger, 20-year-old brother.This young man was the sole breadwinner, caregiver, and pillar of support for his sister and his 6 year old niece.He'd run back and forth kms to balance his job and care for his sister in the ward. Despite our doubts as doctors, he had unwavering faith in her recovery and celebrate the tiniest of victories like distributing kaju katli to the whole ward when we managed to get her MRI scan done after endless difficulties.
I think faith plays wonders, two months later, she was discharged with noticeable improvement.Her brother's joy was palpable, he cried and treated the entire ward to sweets, going much beyond his means. Days culminated into months and this story faded in the background as I got lost in the chaos of work. When almost a year later in an OPD packed with patients, I hear a voice,
"Madamji"
As I turned, there he was, the brother, smiling, introducing me to his sister and her new husband. "God was kind and my sister is doing really well on medicines", he said. While he thanked me in gratitude for her recovery but in that moment, I was extremely grateful to him for his unwavering hope in his sister's recovery and also that faith which he had once put in that young, self-doubting and inexperienced version of myself.
It also reinforced what I had read in textbooks,
"India has great prognosis with
mental illness
because of the unwavering support of thousands of caregivers like him."
- Dr Kinjal Andrade Patil