The ICU and the wives....

A week into my Medicine ward postings and I'm coming to grasp the whole deal and affairs in the wards and the ICU..The job's exciting to the core and a new learning curve nonetheless...Everyday, Patients ranging from Breathlessness to Organophosphorus (OP)poisonings are admitted to our wards..In our part of world, Doctors are considered next to Gods! and its difficult to absorb the sense of faith patients and their relatives bestow upon us...This can certainly be a topic of extensive discussion which we will subsequently do in later posts..
Right from the first day I have been observing that the wives of the male patients admitted in the ICU ( serious ones) silently stare from outside the glass frames and windows at their spouses, too afraid to come in and inquire but too anxious about their Husbands..They just stand there and stare with a look of anxiety which has a tale of itself..Very bravely they control their sobs and hold their tears..its so evident but they never give in to their emotions..

I feel something awkward facing their blank stares and silent questions..Its as if their mere presence is a list of queries in itself but they never ask they just Look..then comes a part when a consent is needed for some procedures to be done on the male patients, and surprisingly females are not included in the decision,its always some elderly male who consents instead of the life partner of the patient...Strange are the rules of society....
That day I was examining this male patient of OP poisoning( suicidal attempt) when I stumbled upon the finding that patient regains a bit of consciousness for sometime during which he only swears at his wife sitting by his bed taking good care of him..and this was told by the wife herself who was probably braver one of the lot...
I thought, would I ever stand such a situation and answer was instantly "no"..then Why did she! because she was his wife? or a women? or his better half? or our society expected (or rather forced) her to?
I belong to that part of world where still womanhood is considered sort-of-shame..just nobody speaks that openly..people talk of women's liberalization and their freedom but our female foeticide rates are sky-high..Women are not involved in any kind of important decisions which even pertain to their own lives..they are just puppets completely at the mercy of their husbands and elderlies in the house..But our so-called modern people donot look at this..They are happy with instances when a lady becomes a Jailor or a pilot, it suffices them to neglect the plight of lacs of unlucky wives all over the country.. Indeed very strange are the norms of society....