Shock has settled and reality has kicked in
Srikanth was nauseous on the morning of the 8th Dec 2025 and didn't eat much. He slept for a while and couldn't have lunch either, looking weak and faint. Without an appointment, we took him to the doctor. Dr. Sandur examined him, diagnosed gastritis, and suggested medication. He referred us to Dr. Naveen Ganjoo - Liver yransplant surgeon, at Aster RV, saying, "Better go and meet him today itself."We had to wait quite a bit to meet Dr. Naveen, who said, "I heard about you, Mr. Shenoy, long before your visit to me." He advised Srikanth to get admitted for observation and tests. We waited 45 minutes for a single occupancy ward. Salimath, who accompanied us, asked the administrator for a place for Srikanth to lie down.
As I entered the ward, an unknown fear clutched my heart. I asked Akka if we could go back to Manipal Hospital, but Dr. Sandur had suggested Dr. Naveen since he's a transplant surgeon. Srikanth perked up by evening and had dinner after medication.
A clumsy nurse kept dropping things, and I was exasperated when she dropped an injection vial. She kept making me fetch hot water, mix medicines, and give them to him. She had a terrible cold and cough and lost her voice the next day, whispering loudly at everyone – it was irritating.
The annas took 20-25 minutes to clean him up and change his diaper. He was given a laxative and had loose motions every 5 minutes. I told Srikanth, I'd seen YouTube videos and could clean him and change his diaper, he was amused but did not agree to it , inspite of me saying that lying in filth wasn't good. They put a tube since he wasn't passing urine and did some tapping. Before tapping, he was left unattended in the corridor in the basement until the bed was free – they could do better with coordination. I was aghast and took pictures; his urinary tube was showing blood.
On Thursday evening, the oximeter didn't show any reading. The night shift nurse panicked, rubbed his fingers, and covered him up. A horde of doctors and nurses came with some equipments. Around 11 pm, they shifted him to ICU for observation. The hospital let me stay in the ward that night.
Each time I visited ICU, there was nobody attending him. He pulled the dialysis tube, and the bed was wet with blood. They said they couldn't change the sheet during dialysis and put restraints – it was heart-rending. A person who spent his life striving for the betterment of rural farmers and the urban poor, begging to free his hands... it broke my heart 😭😭.
Another time, when I was in the washroom, Salimath visited and said blood was spurting like a fountain with nobody attending him. He rushed to the duty doctor for help and was visibly shaken.
i wonder if there are security cameras inside ICU. No sympathy or empathy just general apathy
The doctor told us to keep his spirits up and visit ICU as much as possible but failed to communicate this to security. I begged them everytime to let me visit, even for a short while.
Since he couldn't void after three days, they tried more dialysis – nothing worked, and there were internal complications. On the 17th, the doctor said things weren't looking good, and I called my brothers and amma to come to Bengaluru 😧😧😭.
On the 20th, I fought with security and went in, telling Srikanth, "I'm here at the hospital. fighting the security person is tiring, Get well soon, we can go home..." that was my last cinversation with him..albeit one way .There was a 'hand over' process, (doctors change in shift)and I was sent out. at 10.42 I got a call from ICU that he'd suffered a cardiac arrest... everything went numb... he was cold to my touch, and his lips had turned yellow. I hope he didn't suffer much... 😭😭.
my take on the hospital : they are seriously short staffed. could not help but compare the facilities with Manipal Hospital, Kanakapura road. Such efficient , kind hearted Doctors,bstaffs and nurses.
Many stood by us in our grief, helping with hospital discharge paperwork and insurance. Since he wished to donate his body to a medical college, we had help from Narasimha Prasad, Srikanth's friend Dr. Somashekhar's son...
Life has to go on; we have to come to terms with things 🙏🙏.
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