Dr Aishwarya Preman
It was a Friday midnight when the nurse peeped out of the labour room announcing the birth of a girl child and to congratulate her family. Tears of happiness rolled down the cheeks of her father remembering the last eight years of hardship which he and his wife spent visiting several obstetricians just to fulfill their most salient dream of rocking a cradle for their own baby.
On this fortunate day when his prayer came true he should not fail to express a soulful gratitude to another illustrious day -25th July 1978. This was not an ordinary day.
On this extraordinary day Lesly Brown and John Brown, a sterile couple was blessed with a baby girl in Oldham district general hospital, England They named her Louis Brown. She was the very first test tube baby.
Dr Robert Edward along with the help of Dr.Steptoe, a renowned gynecologist offered this couple IVF (In vitro fertilization) treatment which not just fulfilled their dreams of holding their own baby but also provided a ray of hope to all the childless couples thereafter.
After this day, infertility was no longer a barrier for having a child. Even though this work had to face many critics, Dr.Robert Edwards won the Nobel Prize in the year 2010. Medical science witnesses new inventions and contrivances every day. Labor room walls hear millions of neonate cries but this legendary deed of Dr.Robert Edwards should never be forgotten which gave birth to many unobtainable newborn cries and maternal smiles.
Another flawless prayer that the hospital walls heard was from the parents of a coronary artery disease patient whose heart was ultimately proceeding to heart failure. On the other side of the Intensive Critical Care unit was a 20 year old who was declared brain dead due to severe herpes simplex encephalitis. The beating heart of this 20 year old arrived for the rescue. His parents eternally thanked the donor and the doctors who made the transplantation procedure successful.
Here again there is a historical day that they should never forget- December 3 1967. This day actually changed many lives or infact gifted many lives to the universe. The beating heart of Denise Darwal, a young woman who was found brain dead after a car accident in Cape Town was transplanted to Lewis Washkansky, a grocer who was suffering from incurable heart disease. The world’s first successful human to human heart transplantation surgery which lasted for nine long hours. Denise’s heart started functioning in Washkansky’s body accurately.
This riskiest surgery was done by the surgical genius Dr.Christiaan Barnard who went on to carry out many other heart transplants thereafter. He was loved and admired by his patients, many of whom he treated for free of charge. In this case it’s not only Dr.Barnard who deserves to be thanked but also Denise Darwall’s father who bravely gave the permission to transplant his daughter’s living heart.
These are apparently the two magical days that came out of a magic pot and threw some light on the human life. With their determination, conviction and faith, Dr.Christian Barnard and Dr.Rovert Edward, filled those voids which would have otherwise remained empty. They are the real magicians because the former got a dead person alive and the latter brought a new life into existence which are the definite examples of divine intervention.
