Patient: A Humorous Memoir of Healthcare and Healing

pa•tient /ˈpeɪ.ʃənt/

noun

a person who is under medical care or treatment.

adjective

bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.

 

Two months after several positive Covid tests, Akshay Rao finds himself in the Emergency Room, having been diagnosed with acute renal failure. This, despite donning N95 masks indoors and out, living life as a hermit, and getting vaccinated and boosted at the first available opportunity.

What follows is a delightful, charming, quirky, irreverent and sometimes poignant romp through the travails of being hospitalized for a week, featuring specialist doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and the Rao children valiantly attempting to hide their concern. And, we travel through space and time, with stories of “rerouting” a commercial airliner in India, a close encounter with an orangutan in Malaysian Borneo, an anecdote about little Rao children contemplating their father’s mortality, and an apparition’s role in the birth of a grandfather.

The core message is one of hope and acceptance, and the recognition that all is impermanent, so it is incumbent on us to be compassionate. When somebody cuts you off on the highway, imagine they are driving to the ER with a case of acute renal failure, and give them the right of way.