Strange serendipities — a missed train leads to a long life
Perhaps everybody goes through inexplicable experiences in course of their life. Unless paranormal, they go unnoticed. It has been the same for me but having retired after 60 years I now have time to look back at my life and recall strange serendipities, which I will recount in this series.
(Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4)
Part 3: A missed train leads to a long life
Sometimes in October 1978 Hindalco decided to double its aluminium producing capacity as a result of which it became necessary for them to also double the capacity of their power plant at Renusagar. A decision was taken by the management to hire me back from Desein to head the project of doubling the capacity of the power plant. In early August 1979, I was back at Renusagar Power Company Ltd., as Chief Engineer .
In early Feb 1981 I suffered a heart attack while I was doing some work, past midnight, in the power plant under commissioning. The company arranged best possible medical care for me and I survived, but continued to suffer Angina pain on slightest exertion. I was advised by the doctor not to physically exert, and I had to visit a larger city named Kanpur every month for my health check-up.
We used to go to Kanpur taking the overnight train from Renukoot by travelling by car from Renusagar to Renukoot. This continued until sometime in Feb 1983, when it so happened that the train by which are used to travel to Kanpur was occupied by some unruly political activists. Therefore, my wife decided to cancel the journey and we went to the house of a friend so that I could eat my dinner which wife had packed for me for eating in train after becoming comfortable.
This friend was himself suffering from heart problem but he used to visit Birla’s highly advanced and modern hospital in Mumbai, known as Bombay Hospital, for his check-up once in three months. He advised me to get an appointment with cardiologist in Bombay Hospital. But for the incident of the over-night train having been occupied by some unruly political activists and my wife’s decision to go to friend’s house in Hindalco for my dinner, I would have kept visiting Kanpur for my monthly check-up at Kanpur Heart Institute — which was primitive in comparison with the highly advanced Bombay Hospital. Had wife decided to give me dinner after returning to Renusagar, my reach would have been confined to Kanpur Heart Institute and my life would have been different, as can be visualized from the following events.
In March 1983, I fixed an appointment with a famous cardiologist at Bombay Hospital. After checking me up and going through all my reports from my check-ups in Kanpur Heart Institute, the cardiologist opined that for proper diagnosis it was necessary for me to undergo Angiography. I discussed with wife and came to the conclusion that proper diagnosis was necessary since I was continuously having angina pain for which I had to keep Nitroglycerin sublingual tablets under my tongue all the time.
Thus, I had angiography performed and right on the surgery table the angiographer told me that I had three very serious blockages of certain important arteries of my heart — blockages being of the order of 90% and said that if any one of the blockages becomes 100% it would mean end of life. He and the Cardiologist suggested that I should immediately undergo Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) surgery which he can get done at the Bombay Hospital itself. I was told that without CABG surgery my life expectancy was around 6 months, at the most.
In those days such surgery was very rare in India and survival rate was somewhat lesser than 1%. Therefore, I decided to confer with my friends and family first.
In Mumbai also lived the younger sister of my wife whose husband was a manager at the famous The Oberoi Hotel. When they came to see me at Bombay Hospital. he told that a world famous heart surgeon from USA and the very inventor of CABG surgery, namely Dr. Denton A. Cooley, was in Mumbai and was holding demonstration workshops of how he performed the CABG at his Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas. These demo-workshops were being done at the Breech Candy Hospital, in Mumbai. He further said that Dr. Cooley was staying in The Taj Hotel and that he would talk with his colleague in Taj Hotel and try to fix my appointment with Dr. Cooley so that he can accept me as a patient for the demo-CABG.
Unfortunately Dr. Cooley was to return to USA in two days and no time slot was available for him to use me for the demo-CABG at the Breech Candy Hospital. However, as a special gesture Dr. Cooley had agreed to see me at the Breech Candy Hospital at 10 am before proceeding to the airport.
Thus, I met Dr. Cooley and found him to be a very fine gentleman. He told me that he had already seen my Angiogram since it was projected during the workshop by the Cardiologist who had arranged my Angiography, because I was a special specimen who was, a very senior officer in Birla Group of Industries and active on job yet still surviving with 3 very severe blockages on the three main arteries of heart. The doctor further informed me that I need not worry as he was able to provide me a time slot in his hospital (Texas Heart Institute, Houston) on 9th June 1983. He further told me that upon reaching back to his hospital, he would telex me an invitation informing the total all told cost of the CABG surgery in order that using the said telex message I would be able to arrange the required forex.
Needless to describe further about my going to USA and getting the CABG surgery successfully performed but one thing I would like to mention is that after surgery Dr. Cooley told me that he had made 5 bypasses rather than only 3 since my age was such as would require long enough survival and the bypasses of arteries were made using veins taken out from my leg and that veins never get clogged by cholesterol — only the arteries do and in due course the veins used as bypass convert into veins cell-by-cell.
Thus, just due to certain unexplainable circumstances I was relieved from having to live under shadow of fear of untimely death at a time when my children were too young to support themselves and I had not been able to create enough savings so as enable my wife and children to live in comfort without a bread earner.
How missing a train led to a long and healthy life seems serendipitous indeed!
