Rohan

I heard about him when I was undergoing my first chemotherapy. Nurses told me many stories about this thirteen year old. He was just couple of rooms away from me. They told me how his room was stacked with toys which kept him busy the entire day. They told me how he refused to wear the hospital clothes and insisted on wearing t-shirts and trousers from home. I heard about how he transformed his bedside dinner trolley into a pommel horse sometimes and sometimes into an elevated chair. I heard how he eagerly pulled out all his hair after his chemotherapy just like he would have dismantled a toy at home. I learned that he was a leukemia patient who didn't have a matching donor in the family despite he and his brother being twins.

Rohan's stories made me smile and eager to meet him in person. And then I saw him. I saw him hop past my room with his twin brother. He had a huge smile on his face - a smile which the mournful mask that he wore after his chemotherapy could not succeed in hiding. As days went along Surbhi and Rohan's mother chatted with each other more often since we were separated by only a couple of rooms. While Rohan's parents had anxiety written all over their faces seeing Rohan's slow progress, Rohan was always in his own blissful world, always finding something to amuse him. I still remember how the hospital staff surprised him on his birthday by first making him vacate his room under the pretext of routine cleanup and then decorating the room with festoons and balloons. Rohan in turn celebrated his birthday by distributing chocolates to all the patients, their relatives, nurses, maids and ward boys in the hematology ward.

We parted ways. His counts looked healthier and he got discharged before me. I kept meeting him when he came for routine blood checkup at daycare. His parents weren't keen on going for autologous transplant (the one I underwent) so they were taking radiation therapy in another hospital. Radiation therapy had failed to intimidate the child. He came to visit me in my room when I had come for the next round of chemo. Because of his low immunity he had to spend all his time inside home. His mother told me that he was merrily immersed in all the PC games at home.

I didn't see Rohan for a very long time. Then one day Surbhi bumped into them right before my autologous transplant. Rohan and his mother had come to daycare for transfusing platelets. A tragedy had befallen the family. Rohan's leukemia, which was under remission so far, had relapsed. To aggravate things further doctors said that they cannot perform anymore chemotherapy or radiation therapy. As a last resort family had to try homeopathy for Rohan.

After that we got busy with my transplant and heard nothing about Rohan's health. Today we were shocked to hear that little Rohan is no more. The doctors could not contain the damage done by excessive number of leukemiac cells in Rohan's body.

This wasn't the only sad news which we heard today. We also heard of a demise of a patient who occupied the bone marrow transplant room beside mine. This patient's sister's bone marrow matched 100%. The transplant went off successfully but he succumbed to the post-transplant complications. See the irony of life - on the one hand Rohan had a twin brother whose bone marrow didn't match and Rohan passed away and on the other hand this patient had a sister's whose bone marrow matched perfectly and he still passed away.  I can say with conviction that even though leukemiac damaged every part of Rohan's body they would have failed miserably in damaging the child's spirit. His spirit was impenetrable and unassailable.

Dear Rohan, I will miss you. You probably didn't know what "Carpe Diem" means but you practiced it so well. You never let woe in your life shrivel the child in you. I thank you for teaching me such an important lesson in life.