Why kindness rounds an urgent need
by Vasundhara Rangaswamy 

So what if I look different, I have a name other than 'Ay'

So what if I'm obtunded?

Can you still tie my fingers till they bleed?

Can I lie in urine because the pipe qualities are bad?

Can the ET tube tape be tied and ripped off my beard?

Can the O2 mask elastic or gauze strips cut through my skin?

Can I be shoved and hustled around without being informed?

Can the Ultrasound gel be left on me because I look different?

Can the ventilator or monitor keep beeping on me to fool me that I'm being cared for literally critically?

Do I not need to be fed food or water because I look like I've not needed them before?

Do my tears or pleas to go home or of feeling depressed not real? And worthy if at all of psychiatrist consultation and not a ear?

Even if you want to experiment skills on me, because I look different and enjoy free treatment, dont you wish to learn the right skills? 

I have private parts just like you do. Whether I'm alive or dead, the sight may evoke the same desires in someone watching me.

When I'm alive and can sense and feel, I'd like a screen and a covered blanket. I wear clothes for the same reason as you do. Just that mine dont look clean and expensive. 

I can feel it even if I can't speak coherently.

Even if I can't feel or speak- like one tries to please God who cannot be seen or heard, I am alive and right there.

If I'm yelled at and manhandled - Don't you understand?

No I do not. It is not my subject, plus I did not learn as much reasoning as we did not have schools or access to information or sharing as much as you had those opportunities, I do not eat so well - my brain has been chronically deprived of needed food-some connections never got a chance to develop.

And here I am in a new place with new people with the stress of leaving my little kids and cow alone, with the stress of losing daily wages, with the stress of the money I spent to get here and will to go back, with the stress of seeing no one greet me anytime with a smile, with the stress of being poked and shoved anytime..

Even if I'm dead, maybe the act of dealing with me kindly will get us into a habit of being kind.

I think I recognize the cleaner from a nearby village who gets yelled at and who has started yelling at those who lie on the beds next to me or at those lost faces who come to meet them

The love and care for dead mannequins is more than or even present vs that for living feeling humans

If all the work is learnt on non twitching, non expressive, non moaning mannequins, will the situation of being dispassionate get worse?

We are robots and becoming more and more like that.

Possibly with tech advances, real robots may end up doing better.

Unlike in other countries, where respect possibly comes from external pressure of lawsuits to some extent, we here are not bound by any law or regulations

Patients cannot sue us and the poor almost never.

Plus we are bound by greed of money and of competition.

Compassion-respect-building skills-providing good care should go hand in hand. 

Social medicine and compassion rounds are equally important along with clinical skills rounds.

The repercussions of social medicine and compassion rounds are multidimensional across the length and breadth- from being better caregivers and political leaders to becoming concerned citizens- although ironically the latter should come first.

Maybe it will also make me think twice before I discriminate between humans using a caste, color, cash metrics, be kind to my house helps, to my neighbors or a different creed, if ever, think twice before picking up a gun or grenade.