FEEBLE ECHOES OF DESPAIR; Gone A Little Too Soon

‘Beep, beep, beep’, went the ECG monitor as the old fella gasped more and more to draw in bits of air to alleviate his breathlessness.

“I could have done better”, were the words that echoed repeatedly in the old man’s mind as he tenderly clung to one of the pillows on his hospital bed.

“I surely could have done better”, he said in a soft tone resonating despair.

‘Scott Bunda’ was a popular name in all hallways of Green Leaf Hospital. Just in his early 30’s, Scott had established a name for himself, primarily because of his matchless dedication and tenacious work ethic which had seen him rise quickly across ranks that most of his peers and seniors only dreamt of.

While attending his senior secondary school at Kitwe Boys Secondary School, he was awarded the prestigious Abraham Lincoln Scholarship of Academic Excellence for his outstanding academic performance and numerous ground-breaking JETS projects. In the year that followed, Scott received news of his acceptance to Seattle Grace Medical University, South Carolina, a dream come true for poor young man with dreams so numerous and big. The rest of the years that followed were filled with cataclysmic accounts of his flourish until 6 years later when he graduated top of his class, graduating as a medical doctor with honors.

On a fateful Saturday evening, Scott had gone out for a classmate’s birthday party. Raised in a strict orthodox household, the thought of alcohol was nothing Scott could even entertain. A couple of rounds of alcohol had been taken and one of his classmates, Taylor Campton, a fairly slender young man about 5 feet tall, questioned him curiously.

“Scott, is everything fine?” Taylor asked inquisitively.

“What do you mean?” Scott riposted.

“I mean, why have you resorted to a glass of juice when there’s a lot of good stuff to pick from?” Taylor said with beaming eagerness in his eyes.

“Oh, that’s not my type of thing to do, really”, replied Scott, slightly embarrassed and sending the whole room into a burst of laughter.

“Are you a momma’s boy or something?” Bernice interpolated with tears welling up in her eyes due to the laughter. “C’mon, okay try this cigar. This is one of the finest brands of cigars, only produced in Cuba.”

Not intending to disappoint the expectant audience of peers, Scott inhaled some smoke a couple of times and turning to his friends almost as if to gain their approval, said, “not very bad actually.”

The rest of the evening, Scott tried different types of cigarettes until he found one he was comfortable with. Sadly, a single night of smoking turned into days that also turned into months and years of smoking until the habit was almost impossible to fight off. Eventually, he incorporated it into his daily life, becoming a chronic smoker at a tender age of 21.

August 21st, 2009 at the age of 56, had Scott accepting a very bitter reality. A couple of months before, he noted some weight loss despite a reasonably intact appetite. He later evolved a cough and while his breathing had changed, it did not substantially affect his daily activities especially because most of them were not strenuous. He was however prompted to seek professional medical counsel when he noted dark blood spots on his handkerchief following episodes of cough. He quickly rushed to the hospital, met with a colleague who collected various samples of his for laboratory investigations and a chest x ray. A careful analysis of his biopsied lung tissue revealed he had an advanced stage lung cancer, having only a few months to live; a very big blow for the now 56 year old Scott. After completing some paperwork, his colleague doctor admitted him to the male internal medicine ward.

Fast forward, the years had flown by so fast and Scott could vividly recall the days of his prime, days when he was the most sought-after neurosurgeon across the country. He was now a middle-aged man, frail and battling for his life.

“Quite funny how time can turn even diamonds to dust”, he said to himself with a slightly miserable grin running across his face as he recuperated from his day dream.

Scott’s condition deteriorated rapidly as he progressively lost weight and his ability to breath without mechanical support dwindled by the day. In the hallway, outside the ward in which Scott was admitted was his 4 year old last born son, tenderly playing in his mother’s laps and totally oblivious to the impending death of his dear father, or ‘papa’ as he fondly called him. The open ward doors allowed Scott to steal long, uninterrupted glimpses of his young toddler. The remembrance of the devastating diagnosis he had received from his doctor a few days before stirred a sense of both melancholy and despondency; wishing very deeply that he could go back in time to correct a few things, probably many things altogether.

His heart was filled with feeble echoes of despair. Unfortunately, Scott lost the battle to lung cancer, passing away only 4 months after receiving his diagnosis and survived by a wife a 6 children, one of whom was still in kindergarten. Gone a little too soon.

Lesson

1. Probably one of the major battles faced by most young people in this era is conformity; conformity to standards and patterns of behavior, speech or thought that are imprinted on them by society. Conformity is not a new matter as at least everyone in the past has experienced it in one way or the other. Chances of conformity in this era, however, have spiked up exponentially because there has never been a point in the history of the human race that people have been more interconnected than now. This interconnectedness has positively helped to reinforce the positivity and vibrancy of constructive, like-minded individuals. On the other hand, the same interconnectedness reasonably potentiates social polarity especially among younger generation. This cripples individuals from believing in themselves and their ability to fulfill their God-given purpose outside societal approval or opinions. It has never been more timely than now to help the young generation realize that they are adequately equipped with the potential to impact their area of calling while still being themselves, without bending themselves to the precepts of society that are often very distractive.