Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
THE STRESS
THE STRESS: _ _ Prologue: In my previous article “Creativity”, I have stated that I had lived a very stressful life in India. The word “stress” caught my imagination as everybody experiences some stress everyday in modern world. Stress is a term that has become part of daily language in the 21st century. While stress is not new, it is a term that is used so often that perhaps it might be time to take a closer look at its meaning. If you were to take a poll in downtown and ask people to define stress, or explain what causes stress for them, or how stress affects them, you would probably receive many different answers as people that you asked. The reason is that there is no definition of stress that everyone agrees on because what is stressful for one person may have little effect on others and we all […]
NICOTINE ADDICTION
NICOTINE ADDICTION: _ Mirror shows the harm caused by smoking. _ Prologue: On 3rd December 2007, I posted comments “Tobacco and Smoking cigarettes” on www.ourbollywood.com highlighting evil effects of tobacco smoking. I also stated “Cigarette and tobacco industries defend themselves for providing employment to thousands. You cannot earn livelihood by killing innocent people because then, you become criminals. Smoking cigarette is not a personal matter as passive smoking also kills innocent bystanders.” Later on, I posted the same comments on my website but yet I see tobacco epidemic everywhere. So I decided to revisit the topic again in public interest. For long time, people did not realize that smoking was an addiction and that nicotine was the cause; in fact, cigarette smoking was widely perceived as a glamorous behavior. When your parents were young, people could buy cigarettes and smoke pretty much anywhere — even in hospitals! Ads for […]
EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR MELTDOWN
_ EARTHQUAKE, TSUNAMI AND NUCLEAR MELTDOWN _ Prologue: Earthquakes are among the most devastating natural disasters on the planet. A severe earthquake is one of the most frightening and destructive phenomena of nature with its terrible aftereffects. In the last hundred years they have claimed the lives of over one million people. Earthquakes are destructive mainly because of their unpredictable nature. An earthquake struck at the floor of the Pacific Ocean on 11’th March, 2011 at 14.46 JST – 38.322N 142.369E. It occurred 129 km off Sendai, Honshu (Japan) at a depth of 32 km. Its magnitude was 9 M and its duration 6 minutes. It was a Megathrust type earthquake which triggered tsunami waves of up to 97ft (29.6 meter). The tsunami waves struck inland minutes after the quake and some traveled up to 6 miles (10 km) inland. The disaster is believed to have killed more than 25,000 […]
THE SLEEP
_ THE SLEEP _ Prologue: When I was working as a medical specialist in Saudi Arabia, my duty time was 7.30 am to 5 pm and additional calls at night. If I woke up at 2 am to treat a serious patient and finished work at 3 am, technically speaking I worked 1 hour extra. My Saudi boss used to say that I can come 1 hour late next day at 8.30 am as I worked previous night for 1 hour extra. It is stupid to say the least and cruel to say the most. The issue is not 1 hour night disturbance but you do not get good sleep after being woken up at midnight and your next day is spoiled due to day-time sleepiness. I am sure that medical professionals, police, military, fire brigade etc will agree with me. Even today, I am the only physician in the […]
THE DEATH
THE DEATH Prologue: As a student of medicine, since I joined medical college in the year 1978, I have been a witness to death either in the form of dissecting a dead body or declaring someone dead. The dissecting cadaver (corpse) is a critical component of every medical education. Without the anatomical understanding of the human body that is afforded by dissection, much of modern medicine would simply not exist. I also remember a very difficult task of informing a crying mother that her only son died of poisoning. Hundreds of patients have died before me in my experience as a doctor. Many times my junior doctors have expressed apprehension of declaring someone dead because they were afraid that patient may still be alive and I used to teach them signs of death like unconsciousness, no response to any stimulus, no breathing, no pulse and no heart beat on […]
