Specially challenged (TheTelegraphicTales)

Today while working in the ER I encountered a young patient​, a boy 17yrs of age, who could not hear or speak since birth. He was accompanied by his mother who somehow managed to tell us that he has stomach ache. He was so restless that I could myself understand this much from his body language and my clinical knowledge. I started giving him some injections which would relieve his symptoms but they weren't of much help. I called up a friend who knew sign language so as to communicate with him but his mother informed that he is not educated. And there I felt the floor slipping away from under my foot, what did I just hear? A deaf & dumb boy, how will he express himself? If his two senses aren't working he still has other senses intact. He can see, he can write but his parents never realised that how important it is to express oneself. Shocked and surprised at the same time, on knowing the family history, the couple had 4 kids of which one was specially challenged. While there are many NGOs, schools and other health & education ​systems established for providing the necessary information and teaching, at a minimal cost, very much affordable and sometimes free as well yet people don't use them. The parents were spending money in lakhs for the education of their three kids but not a single penny for this child only because they thought what will he do with education. You be rich or poor but if you don't have the ability of expressing you cannot help your ownself. We talk about the big changes we want, well this is where we need to start. All the knowledge I gained in these years was useless today in front of him for even if I had known the sign language he wouldn't understand me at all. We tried counseling his parents but they didn't pay much heed to our words & took away our mysterious patient, discharging on risk bond. I could only silently pray for him because that's what we do all the time after we are done with the medicinal treatment, pray to God to handle the rest!

~Auldrin©