A heart-wrenching post by a doctor is going viral on the internet. Dr Abby Philips aka TheLiverDoc (@theliverdr) took to Twitter to share a heartfelt post about treating a patient with alcohol use disorder. In a long post, the doctor talked about the effects of alcoholism on a family and a doctor's life.
"The 4th Laddu. These 3 laddus were given to me by the wife of my patient on his birthday, a few weeks before. She was now happy and the family was doing good for themselves," Dr Philips wrote.
The doctor posted a photograph of three laddus and shared that he received them from a patient's wife on his birthday. The patient named Paul was suffering from alcohol use disorder and had been drinking for more than 15 years. A few months ago, Paul was diagnosed with alcohol-related hepatitis, and he was advised for a liver transplant.
Unfortunately, Paul's family could not afford hospital admission and the surgery cost. Paul owned a small provisions and bakery shop, had two daughters, aged 5 and 9 and his wife worked part-time errands, but quit after the girls were born.
The doctor regularly prescribed medicines, made suggestions to reduce symptoms and comforted the family over the phone, while Paul was treated at home. However, Paul died at home on the 18th day.
See the post here:
After three months, his wife visited the doctor on his birthday and gave him sweets. "Three Laddus. One from her and two from the daughters. Because I never stigmatized her or Paul. I did not make her look like a failure. I never blamed her or Paul for his disease. I never shouted at Paul for his behaviour. They were free now. The girls went to school and the wife was now running the shop well," he added.
The doctor wrote, "But all I could think about, was that fourth Laddu. The one I never received from Paul, because he died. A woman lost her husband, two bright young children lost their father. All three lives are broken and a void that can never be filled." He also mentioned that he has "post-traumatic stress disorder from seeing families get shattered into a million little pieces due to alcohol."
The doctor's emotional post about Paul and his family touched many hearts online, it also put the spotlight on the destructive power of addiction. Social media users requested the doctor to put this story in other languages so that it could reach more people.
"This is so heartwarming. Thanks for sharing. Alcoholism is a global scourge. Your writings should reach globally. Will see if such posts of yours can be translated to Arabic. I live in Dubai," read a tweet.
"If possible put this out in Hindi. A lot of people need to read it. Most of them won't understand English are the very ones who should be reading this," another user wrote.
"Wonderfully narrated. I feel your pain. It's not easy to write like this without heartfelt compassion. Congratulations," the third user commented.
"You are a good man Doc. Keep ur spirits high and do good. We get very few like you around who are willing to raise their voices against the establishment," the fourth user wrote.
