How Hospitals Treat Deceased?

Need of Ethics and Soft Skills! 

How are hospitals and nursing homes expected to treat patients who have died in course of undergoing treatment? By any standards, after the attending physician issues a death certificate, it is the basic decency of nurses to clean the patient and make them presentable before handing over the deceased to their kins.

Globally, the general practice is to lay the patient on their back with one pillow in place; straighten the patient’s limbs and place their arms by their sides; gently close the patient’s eyes if open by applying light pressure for thirty seconds. And finally, tidy the hair as soon as possible and arrange it into the preferred style.

Publisher-Writer Sujit Acharya

Soon after death occurs, one should be able to close the eyelids quite easily. However, after a while, once rigor mortis sets in, it can become difficult. 

All these are done to give the deceased dignity and show they are sleeping peacefully. It is an expression of respect and affection, part of the process of adjusting to loss and expressing grief.  

My uncle spent in a hospital at an Indian metro city nearly ten days dying. He was sleeping because his organs were shutting down, a natural process due to old age. He passed away on 30th November 2018. He was 91.

All hell broke loose in the lineage as soon someone shared half-a-dozen photographs of the deceased through WhatsApp. I was yet to receive though. My sibling who resides in a different city texted me that the images were extremely distasteful and was reluctant to show or share it with anybody!

After a week or so, those same set of images too landed up in my WhatsApp on a late

The Awful image of deceased

night. Honestly, I could not stare at the photographs for more than a second as it was just terrible and hurting me. Initially, I was fuming against the sender but then, a deeper thought came into my mind.

Observing the photographs, I felt that there had been serious deficiency on part of the hospital in handing over the deceased to kins without even caring to make it bare-minimum presentable! The eyes and mouth were wide open! And this only compounded lot of doubts and integrity of the hospital in question. 

If this was the state of affairs at a reputed hospital in a metro city, then one could imagine plight of millions of patients across the various Indian states who has to visit such type of health care centres on a regular basis.

The transformed image with closed eyelids and mouth

All these had choked me with emotions. I was convinced that our fun-loving uncle alias, Publisher & Writer Sujit Acharya, who was extremely health conscious, who took pride in his dressing and looks, would have never liked to be seen in such disgraceful images.

After months I was able to muster courage to view those photographs. Staring at them I was wondering deeply if anything positive could be done. With several hours of trial and error in my Mac, I was finally able to transform an appropriate image that should be acceptable in contrast to the ones shared! 

Yes, he is now peacefully sleeping - I am sure our uncle, affectionately addressed by many as Kuka, appears that his soul is satisfied!

Sujit Acharya

To conclude, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care organisations must

Publisher & Writer Sujit Acharya

ensure adequate dignity to the deceased. They should be trained in soft skills to deal with the deceased's grieve-stricken kins and loved ones. While there is a crying need of an effective competent government agencies to monitor hospitals and nursing homes from time to time, health organisations should also initiate punitive actions on its own against the erring personnel. 

Further, citizens who are armed with the power of internet can post their experiences in various social media. They should avoid circulating fake messages and instead genuinely report any such deficiencies as well as show whole heartedly praise for any good deeds shown. These steps may put the hospitals and nursing homes on their toes to thwart recurrence of such unpleasant episodes. 

OVAL: CALCUTTA’S ULTIMATE PLACE TO CHILL!

Moloy Dutta makes it big

Oval Lounge Bar & Restaurant

Visual Merchandising and Retail Design – popularly known as VM&RD magazine which covers the retail and lifestyle space has featured Moloy Dutta, partner Oval in its July 2012 edition. Oval, as the name suggests is the shape of the building and Calcutta’s latest up-market corporate Lounge Bar and Restaurant located at DLF IT Park, New Town.

In May last, Oval had organized a unique food and bike pairing where scores of Calcutta’s Harley Owners Group participated in a 150km ride to CCD on the Durgapur Expressway and back. Oval was the sip-and-dine destination for all the participants. The Telegraph newspaper had a special write-up on this event.

The pub with its cool design, cozy sitting arrangement is the ultimate place for employees of various software companies located in and around Salt Lake City to hang out. From pop, rock, jazz or fusion, Oval boasts of having the best audio and video music played round the clock. And yes, this bit of trait can be attributed to Moloy who grew up in Shillong and Bangalore with such genre of music!

With psychedelic lights, high-end sound system coupled with the images of super rock star legends like Jim Morrison, Riche Blackmore, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix to name a few, it’s no doubt a great place to chill out.

The Oval Bar stocks a range of finest whisky, flavoured vodka and wines. For snacks, chef at Oval recommends the Oval non-veg platter, with a mix of tandoori chicken, fish and lamb.

Special dish served here that deserves a mention is the stuffed chicken which has been masterminded with an array of grilled chicken and black pepper sauce. 3idiots a mouth watering non-vegetarian main course is a combination of crump fried jumbo prawn, Calcutta bhetki and chicken served with fries and tartre sauce.

The Bar Counter with Jim Morrison's image

The prices are pocket friendly too. A meal for two along with drinks will come for around Rs 700.

Hats off to this gentleman who had a meteorite rise in his career. After working for several years at a professional hotel management institute as a vice president, Moloy Dutta, alias Rahul chose to quit his job and come up with Oval. 

Internet image grab of Visual Merchandising and Retail Design (VM&RD) July 2012 edition

Avian Media: The Corporate Anthem!

· We dare to dream…

The growing popularity of corporate anthems has become an integral part of several organizations across the globe. It has the unique power to create a company’s image by imbibing  messages of its core values and vision through the lyrics thereby, fostering a deeper bond among its employees.

Given a situation of any special celebrations or an emotional achievement, such anthems are sung in chorus by its employees  to  show utmost respect for the organization.

From pop, rock, rap to hip-hop, various companies adopt different genres of music to make a statement. 

If PriceWaterhouseCooper’s anthem is of hip-hop track, Ernst & Young’s gospel tune, so is computer security giant Symantec’s motivational rap music, while a wonderful pop tune of KPMG’s power ballad strategy. (it’s a must listen track -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXUhQnOYR54).

Not to be left behind, business communication leader, Avian Media too joined the bandwagon of creating its own anthem which was hurriedly penned just before the Award’s Night at Corbett last October and sung by its members.

With lyrics such as “We trudge that extra mile/To bring that extra mile”, Avian’s We dare to Dream has the polished turn-of –phrase which can be improved by padding a specific genre music and having it recorded at a professional studio.

Check out the video clip below:

Cheers!