Today was our second day at BSES M G Hospital. The facility is run by an NGO (non-governmental organization) called Brahma Kumaris’ Global Hospital and Research Centre that emphasizes the role of spiritual well being during the convalescent process. They do this by implementing rajyoga, a non-physical form of yoga meditation, and through the help of devoted spiritual guidance counselors called Brahma Kumaris Sisters. From the western point of view this kind of facility would look as if it were run by a bunch of new age quacks, but the medical care given at this hospital is good. They have the best facilities I have seen so far with an excellent staff. Some of the rooms look as if they came out of hotels with a single bed, TV and lounge all in one room. They are a semi-private hospital and as such are more expensive than what the majority of the population can afford, but they do maintain 33 % of their beds for low-income individuals and provide free services to them. Companies can buy different medical plans through the hospital and people can use their health insurance as well. After rotating through the wards I could easily imagine the women clad in white saris floating from patient to patient as nuns in habits and the meditation room as the hospital chapel. The philosophy is different, and I don’t know enough about either situation to make further comparisons, but after seeing a patient have an abscess incised and drained the size of a tea cup, the faint and soothing music in the background helped me out. The patient on the other hand could have used a bit of morphine to take the edge off the excruciating pain.

At this point I want to simply take note of some of the more interesting things I’ve seen so far. Vancomycin resistant Staph aureas (according to the chart at least), a submandibular lymphatic infection of tuberculosis, a clinic and hospital requiring people to take off their shoes before entering treatment areas including the ICU and maternity ward, multi-drug resistant TB, a man with smallpox scars, and a host of other medical conditions that would surprise me if I knew what they were.