An Accident in which I was Involved
It was summer and I was attending a function at the International Youth Hostel in Diplomatic Enclave in New Delhi. It was 9 PM. and I was in haste to reach my house in Rajouri Garden. As I was crossing a lawn to reach the bus stand, in the dark I stumbled over something and left off. I lost my consciousness. Thereafter, I don’t know what happened to me.
I came to consciousness at midnight in the Medical Institute of India and wondered where I was. My arm was broken, wrist fractured and armpit dislocated. I had fallen into a deep pit and had become unconscious. Some foreigner heard the thud of my fall and he investigated the matter with a match stick. Then he informed the President of the function Mr. Prasad, who was still there on the premises and he knew me.
He took me out of the pit and took me to the Medical Institute of India. He telephoned to my parents and just informed them that I would not come home that night. An operation was performed that night and my arm was put in plaster. Early next morning Mr. Prasad drove me home in his car. He was in hospital with me throughout the night. He was the Collector of Customs and had come straight from Bombay by air He had not gone home even.
My people came to know of the accident only when I reached home. It was summer and I felt terrible in that well cemented plaster from finger tips to the armpit. If felt that the plaster was not necessary, especially in the hot weather of June and it could do me more harm than good. Besides, I felt that the plaster was not used thirty years back at Lahore when I had another similar accident, having been run over by car and my arm was straightened with splinter and cotton wool, which was equally effective.
I asked some private practitioners to help me to remove the plaster but they would not agree, considered it illegal, and even advised me not to do so. But I though over it and decided to do without it. So I bought a bottle of turpentine oil to soften plaster and chipped it bit by bit with the kitchen knife. It took me entire day to get rid of that heavy stuff. But I felt greatly relieved.
I retied my arm with cotton and cloth and it worked wonders. The fracture healed much quicker than the plaster could have done. In fact, the plaster could have harmed my arm and even left my elbow completely dislocated at the angle of ninety degrees.
