Hospitals should have recreational centres for attendants of patients

Like every Head teacher the month of January has been laden with heavy academic and cultural events. Also as MISA Secretary, we were in the midst of MISA velocity and planning of upcoming MISA Conference. Suddenly on 18th January, my Father in law complained of chest pain and had to be rushed to the hospital and they immediately put him in ICU. The next few days were a whirlwind of tests, interactions with surgeons and understanding health implications and intricate procedures. 

As he had suffered a massive heart attack, he was placed in the I.C.C.U section and the surgery was to take a week later. Thus in all, we were around 18 days in the hospital. 

Our days began with deciding who would sleep the night that day, then both my sister in law and me leaving for the hospital. As my work area was close to the hospital, I dropped in to the school and her to the hospital. As the day progressed my duty shifted from school to hospital and then later in the day to the house attending to my son and house chores. 

While sitting in the ICU waiting area day after day the faces sitting around you become familiar and the conversations begin. You witness the uncontrollable tears, the helplessness, the huge financial burden faced by relatives of the patients and at that time you feel grateful for your health. It is true what people say, 'If you ever feel life is too constricting, visit an ICU section of a hospital, you will count your blessings'. 

While sitting in the hospital idling away time and feeling depressed I felt the time could be better utilized if there was a spa section only for 24 hour attendants of patients around and why not. Instead of feeling low why not feel relaxed and have a stress free spa or if my body is aching with hours of sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair, have a body ache removal spa. Also a change of seeing beds with immense machines and tubes, a bed laden with flowers is a welcome sight. All the relaxation gained could make me more positive and energetic. 

At the same if they had a small library where we could access motivational or humor filled books. Also having a indoor sports area could keep our mind more fresher and make us more energetic. If given these facilities, I definitely would have better things to discuss than only sad truths and facts because life is finding glimpses and rays of happiness in the midst of turmoil. Yes, we do have places of worship within hospitals to make us feel positive but honestly there are moments of pain and anguish which get passed over to the deity and therefore I refrain from entering the place at that moment.

So as experimentation is the key to new discoveries and inventions, currently one hospital could start it as a pilot project, do an action research on people’s demeanour before and after having a recreational activity and their impact on the patient’s mental health as a consequence. 

Why should hospital spell doom and unhappiness? Why not offer few retreats to short flashes of joy as I met few people who had been part of this hospital journey for more than few months and that is a pretty long time. They need to feel special. Also one needs to feel calm and refreshed to take care of their loved ones.