Santhosh's ramblings

No organization without a vision can flourish and grow. A vision, which might be more of a dream as of today, is what will motivate and keep the organization and its team to move ahead in the midst of various challenges one faces. Many a times, this vision, usually clarified at establishment of the institution or organization is more of a narrow vision . Narrow in terms the impact one wants to see happening, in terms of the model and even at times in terms of the scope of what one can or should do. This is based on the narrow understanding of issues before getting in to be involved in issues at the ground. Health care institutions established by mission organizations are a good example to study. In many locations, Missionaries has a vision of disease control, and curative services, as an entry point to preaching the gospel, and this has to be supported by generous donations from their parent churches so that free charity care can be provided. As one creates the structures t

I am quoting from an article in Christianity Today of 2009. “The reasons Christians developed the world's first health care system—as opposed to simply medical practitioners—are as relevant today as they were 2,000 years ago. In Gary Ferngren's book Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity , Ferngren says, "Christians of the first five centuries held views regarding the use of medicine and the healing of disease that did not differ appreciably from those that were widely taken for granted in the Graeco-Roman world." Medicine, as developed by the Greeks, was a naturalistic field. Doctors studied the body, made observations, and practiced their art without appeal to Greek divinities. So Christians had no reason to oppose its practice. When an epidemic struck in the ancient world, pagan city officials offered gifts to the gods but nothing for their suffering citizens. Even in healthy times, those who had no one to care for them, or whose care placed too gr

Christian Medical Comment: Changing Ireland’s abortion law will not save any mothers and could lead to 11,000 more abortions annually

“  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb   3  and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” 4  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ”   Is this not the pattern of my life – I wake up each day asking – Who will roll the stone away….the entrance to the tomb, into which I want to enter – a potential site for crying and morning, situations which I fear to address each day, closed off by a large stone….echoes these women’s statements and sentiments each day! But when they reached there – as they came near the Tomb – they realize that  “the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away”….  Someone has been up much early, moving out the stone and getting the stage ready for the “turn around” which the women had not even imagined, (though this had been told to them by their master)…. How easily do I forget the “

Santhosh's ramblings: Losing consciousnesses.... : Confusion is a lack of clarity in thinking with inattentiveness; delirium is used to describe as acute confusional state; stupor a state i...

Confusion is a lack of clarity in thinking with inattentiveness; delirium is used to describe as acute confusional state; stupor a state in which vigorous stimuli are needed to elicit a response; coma a condition of un-responsiveness….. Some interesting definitions from the “Forgotten art of Medicine”….But are these terms only relevant for the body only, What about institutions, organizations,. Industries, churches, and even families…. Confusion can come up over a period of time, due to long standing deranged internal functions which should have been clarified and sorted out earlier, many a times out of a “lack of discipline. Hepatic encephalopathy is an excellent example – years of “Alcohol intake and destruction of Hepatic cells” leads to a slow build up of “NH4/3” products and other “confusion creating chemicals” and one slowly moves into a confusional stage. Many a times precipitated by sudden crises…. Delirium is an acute onset of a confusional state – though thought

We students of science and our educational system has led us to reason that, if B causes A, (the so called normal which we have decided as the “acceptable normal”) to be “damaged” or “affected”, and if C is the antidote for B all you need is to deploy C,  and the system will fall back to a normal A. We also tend to believe, the A we see as normal is the normal – anything different is “Abnormal”…and is to be facilitated back to “normal” or to be “tolerated”, if we cannot facilitate back the same… We also tend to work with the notion that, the change should be within “x” number of time span and that if that does not happen, something has failed and has gone wrong…and we re-start the process of identifying D, which could be better than C… Recently I was sitting through a “Public health discussion” – that so much of resources and interventions have been put into this group and has led to excellent results in some parts of the country but other parts have not done well, and so