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| Indulekha, Head Nurse, Mother and Child Centre, Medical College, Kozhikode |
Her teenage desire was to become an advocate. But acceding to the wish of her parents, who were themselves nursing assistants, she elected to don the white coat instead of the black.
And after being posted in the pediatric surgery ward of Kozhikode Medical College, perhaps Indulekha had to use her convincing skills with the Supreme Justice to spare the lives of the endless stream of critically ill infants brought to her care.
During her infancy and childhood, she and the other siblings had to adjust to the lack of parental care as both her parents, Narayanan and Radha, were away most of the daytime in the hospital. And when she joined the Medical College in 1983, Dr.Karthikeya Varma, who was in charge of the pediatric surgery ward “would spare food and sleep to minister to precious lives. He taught us by his example the need to be extremely sincere to our work,” she says.
Thus trained at home and hospital, she found her native love for infants flowering in the ceaseless care of the budding lives.
When death visits the ward in one of its unannounced rounds, she has to complete the after-death chores before she can wipe her own tears. And yet, she cannot think of a day without working. She is reluctant to avail leave, except for few visits to Guruvayoor.
Just like her, her own children have come to accept her absence from home. Her daughter Rekha is a student of B.Sc Nursing and her son Rakhil is a student of Engineering. Her husband is an LIC Advisor.
Self-effacing by nature, she had assented to submit her credentials for the award at the insistence of nursing officer Padmini.
“The award came as a shock”, she says. The unsought award was perhaps even more shocking than death that used to snatch away infants even after earnestly sought prayer.
Courtesy:
Dhanya K (text), Azim Komachi (photo), Vanitha, February 1-14, 2010
Contributed by: Administrator
