The premature passing away of Annie made me ponder.
It is said that only the good die young. They now dwell in paradise at the right hand of the Lord or have achieved moksha depending on ones beliefs. It is the ones who remain who suffer the loss.
In this uncertain life there are but two constants, birth and death, in between these constants there are variables. I am in the sunset of my life and cannot be sure when the Grim Reaper knocks.
My mother lived till the ripe age of 94 but when younger she wanted to see her children married, then to see her grandchildren, next her grandchildren married and finally her great grandchildren. She was blessed to live long enough to see it come to pass.
It is said that our natural life sans diseases is determined by the length of telomeres at the end of the chromosomes. Telomeres are protective DNA caps at the ends of chromosomes. They act like the plastic tips on shoelaces, preventing chromosomes from fraying or sticking to each other. They shorten with each division till they become critically short and the cell stops dividing or dies.
Two weeks ago I was in a Surgical Conference and attending a best paper presentation. My student had just finished presenting and during the next presentation a surgeon sitting two rows in front of me indicated to the judges on the stage that he was not feeling well. The judges rushed down and asked him to lie down on the sofa. He then had a cardiac arrest, immediate CPR was given and he was transferred to the hospital but he did not make it! He was the President of the Rajasthan Surgical Society and had come to canvass for his bid for President of the Association of Surgeons of India. Unfortunately that was not to be. I had met at lunch a day earlier and he looked hale and hearty. Not an inch of excess fat and a wiry build.
Nagpur was shocked by the death of a young Neurosurgeon. He had a very successful career and had no ‘habits’ i.e. he did not smoke nor was he fond of Bacchus. He was seen in the gym 6 am without fail. His only failing if you can call it so was that he was a workaholic. I knew since the time he began his career and he built up an empire, recently he had purchased a plot for ₹23 crores but “man proposes and God disposes”.
One of my colleagues who was just 3 years senior to me suddenly came down with severe myalgia, which progressed over a period of a month to myoglobinuria and renal failure followed by respiratory failure. He had to be put on an ECMO machine but he did not make it. Till the end nobody could figure out what exactly caused these sequence of events. He was again sans habits though overweight and not fond of movement, though no comorbidities.
I have a young postgraduate student under me and a year ago she initially had a URI which rapidly progressed to respiratory failure and she had to be put on a ventilator. Luckily she lived to tell the tale but in her case too they could not pinpoint an organism, despite extensive testing. Because of her youth she came out of it.
Then we all know about the sad passing away of Agroo in a freak accident.
Absence of habits or a vegetarian diet does not necessarily endow one with immunity.Anecdotal
In Hindi there is a saying, “जाको राखे सैया, मार सके ना कोई”, meaning Whom God protects, no one can kill or harm. We can count ourselves blessed to have made it thus far.
“Cowards die a thousand deaths but the valiant taste of death but once”