BOY WHO GREW UP ON TALE OF HIS BIRTH MEETS HERO WHO DEFIED THE ODDS... 21 years on, face to face with Dr Caring Hands

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 14 Jul 2019, Darjeeling: Pasang Dorjee Sherpa has never met Prem Dorjee Bhutia but all his life he has heard tales of how on a wintry morning in Darjeeling 21 years ago the doctor had delicately pulled him out of his mother's womb with nothing but his bare hands, using his fingers as forceps.

So last week, with his grandfather for company, Pasang, now a strapping young man of 21, set out for Siliguri to meet doctor Bhutia, carrying with him a bag full of fresh homegrown vegetables.

Flashback to December 1998 in a remote village in Lava, Darjeeling. Jamuni Tamang went into labour early in the morning. There was no hospital within 60km of the village, Sherpa Goan.

The solitary government run bus from Gorubathan to Kalimpong that passed through the village had left. The only other option was taking a private vehicle, but that would mean a trek of 8km on difficult hill terrain in punishing cold. Also, there was no certainty that the few Willys jeeps in the village would be available.

Enter the messiah. Doctor Bhutia, a local boy, had been visiting his native village after graduating in medicine.

"That morning, some villagers came to me and said a young woman was in labour," the doctor recalled after meeting Pasang at his Siliguri home on July 7.

With the passing years and the daily grind of life, doctor Bhutia had all but forgotten that episode, but the memories came flooding back on meeting Pasang.

The young doctor rushed to Jamuni's house and found the expecting mother surrounded by five-six women. "Her father-in-law, Goth Kailla Sherpa, urged me to do whatever was needed to deliver the baby," Bhutia said.

A pair of gloves, sterile gauges, a sterile thread to tie around the umbilical cord and a sterile blade to cut the cord were a bare minimum needed for the procedure, but nothing was available.

An old quilt cover was used as a gauge, Goth Kailla's shaving blade was sterilised by putting it in boiling water, and with no gloves available, doctor Bhutia, a general physician, had no option but to wash his hands thoroughly to guard against infections.

"I kept washing my hands till the kalo sabun (used to wash dishes) had half-melted," the doctor said.

Using his fingers as forceps, doctor Bhutia guided the baby out of the womb.

"It was a healthy baby boy. There were celebrations all around and I was offered a warm cup of salted tea," he recalled.

Cut to July 2019. Pasang, who now studies in Kalimpong College, arrived at doctor Bhutia's house in Siliguri, accompanied by his grandfather Goth Kailla, now 82.

"My grandfather always tells me about the difficulties my family faced during the delivery. He talks about doctor Bhutia, but I had never met him," Pasang said.

During school days, the story meant little to Pasang, the only child of Jamuni, a housewife, and Suku Chamba Sherpa, a forest department employee.

"Once I started attending college and began understanding life better, I began feeling this urge to meet doctor Bhutia," said Pasang, who is enrolled in the pass course.

Last week, when his grandfather once again broached the topic, Pasang decided to meet doctor Bhutia. "I feel he was the one who gave me this life," Pasang said.

Doctor Bhutia, who now works in a private hospital in Siliguri, said he got "a bit emotional seeing this young man".

Pasang said his long-cherished dream had come true.

"I spent three hours talking to the doctor. This meeting was priceless. I cannot even express how I felt," he said.

Doctor Bhutia asked Pasang about his studies, what he wanted to be in life and promised all help in realising his dreams.