Guest Column: Down The Memory Lane…

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Volume 3 Issue 2 February, 2013

Don’t Try To Be a Hero

I was in Faculty at NIMHANS many years ago and one morning in the OPD one of the residents came to inform me that an un‐cooperative patient had come and he refused to get out of the car. I confidently walked out of the room and said I would handle it. I saw this young man in his late 20s, at the left corner of an Ambassador car. I tried speaking to him. He made no eye contact and certainly did not respond to any of my attempts. I confidently entered the back of the car and shut the door to persuade him and there was no one else in the vehicle. After few minutes of silence, he slowly pulled out a sharp knife from his pocket without even glancing at me. You can imagine my state of affairs; I was scared, but did not dare show it to him. I was afraid but, gently asked him to hand over the knife to me. He kept staring at me & after few minutes handed over the knife, to my great relief, as I opened the car door. I put my arm around him and walked with him to the canteen. We both had a cup of tea and I slowly walked him to the closed ward and admitted him. Until it was done, I was pretty anxious as to what might have happened.

Lesson: Don’t try to be a hero before you get to know the ground realities and facts of the problem.

Dr. S. Kalyanasundaram, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Bengaluru.
He was the chairperson, organizing committee of ANCIPS 2013
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