India; Part One

Follow my South India trail and spend a day at Fort Kochi Government Hospital; you want a hidden Jewel? This is it.
The head nursemaid took me under her wing immediately. She laid a fresh sheet on my bed, held my hand and rubbed my back as ‘Dr Barely Twenty’ administered my IV. My experience was completely hygienic, but this is your main concern. My IV needle came in vacuum sealed plastic and was opened at my bed. I did decline a second shot for pain; I was faced with a needle in a metal dish and I didn’t see how or where it was prepared. Pain I could manage, the IV I needed.
I slept for two hours. During a second IV, I began to survey my surrounds. I am in a square, cement room with nine beds that run the length of two opposing walls, the windows have bars not glass, two open doors; front and back. I spotted a cat as it slid under my bed and three goats ate weeds outside the back door. I was lucky to see the humour and had a giggle to myself as I rested my faith in the fact that I was safe and cared for.
I was discharged after the second IV but as I walked down the street my body went into shock. My vision blurred, I went clammy and weak, I couldn’t breathe and I could barely walk. This took seconds to come on and I was able to stumble back to my caring Nursemaid.
Once back in my oasis of care I was given another IV with glucose. This gave me time to deepen my connection with the other patients and visitors and the facial expressions became more familiar and warm. They began to offer me drink and conversation and I slowly began to realise the role of the hospital stops with medical care, they don’t feed or water you; your visitors do that.
It had been nine hours since I’d arrived and the visitors were embracing me as their own. When offered a drink I declined out of politeness and concern for ‘cross contamination’. As the glucose IV fed the cells in my brain I saw that the patients weren’t touching their lips to the cup but poured the drink from height. This was where I had my deep realisation.
The medical team exist purely to treat and are therefore thorough and attentive. The visitors are there to bathe, water and feed their loved ones and the care is therefore full of compassion and love. Everything is covered, even cross contamination is covered with the non contact drinking.
This deepened my concepts of Community and Family. Here I realised I had found the local experience I’d come for; culture, family, and local treasure.