Yoda falls sick
The Indian monsoon lasts for three months. Nonstop rain for eight to ten days, followed by a few days of sunshine. Then the next bout of rain. The winds are fierce, they rattle the glass, and the sound is like a 747 taking off.
Late one monsoon night, I heard the key being turned and the front door opening. And there was Mina, holding Yoda in her hands. ‘Yoda is sick’. She had driven all the way from our beach house at Nandgaon in the blinding rain. ‘I don’t know if there was more water outside the car in the rain, or inside the car from my crying’.
Yoda was listless, and did not move very much. He had not eaten anything for a day and a half. We gave him lots of water through the night, and took him to see Dr Silloo the next morning.
“He’s got Erlychia. Its very common in the Alibag area. It’s a tick borne disease, and Yoda must have picked it up from the garden, or from any of the stray dogs. There is no treatment in India. There is a medicine called Imazol, but we don’t get it here. I have a vial, but it’s date expired. If you are planning to go abroad, why don’t you go now, and get him treated. You better do something fast”. ( This was some years ago, fortunately Imazol is freely available in India today).
Mina called George, our vet in New York. He wanted us to bring Yoda as soon as possible. But he warned us that it might already be too late. Yoda could end up needing a complete blood transfusion, and even that might not help. Mina said ‘ Let’s go tomorrow night’. We planned to take Yoda directly to see George as soon as we landed in New York.
Since Yoda was not eating, we were giving him a saline drip. Mina took him for a last round before we went to the airport. She came back very angry because the doctor was unable to find the vein, and kept poking around. Yoda was howling in pain, and fear. Mina had sworn at the doctor. There was no shortage of drama.
Indians have great faith in coconut water. You can find poly bags filled with it on sale outside every hospital. We filled up his water bottle with coconut water, and took along a couple of extra bags with us. The flight was empty, and so Yoda had his own seat beside Mina. I sat behind them, and patrolled up and down the cabin.
The plane got to Paris, and we were happy. Now it was just another three and a half hours across the Atlantic. Soon we would be in George’s safe hands.
The Concorde took off from Paris, flying sub sonic till it reached the open waters. At about the time when the plane would normally reach Mach 1, the captain’s voice came on. He announced that something was wrong with the plane, and we were turning back. The plane would need to dump its fuel, so he warned us to expect a ‘little turbulence’. When the pilot tells you to expect ‘a little’, you expect a lot. Sure enough, the plane wobbled all the way back to Paris.
Three hours, while they got another Concorde ready, and then we took off again. All the while, Yoda slept and did not complain. Every once so often, we would wake him up to give him some more coconut water.
We had called George and told him we would be late. There is something quite glamorous about telling someone that the Concorde had to turn back because its after burners did not light up, and it could not go supersonic. Jargon is always so much fun. But, not today. We would have given anything for the flight to have gone smoothly.
We got to New York, rushed Yoda to the hospital, and got him on another saline drip.
George looked at the blood reports from Bombay, and turned to us. ” We know what it is, and we know that IMAZOL is the only treatment. Unfortunately, the FDA has not approved IMAZOL for use in the US , so it is not available here. It’s on sale in the UK, but you can’t take Yoda there because of the quarantine”.
We were jet lagged, we were tired, we were depressed. It was a Saturday afternoon, and we could not do anything till Monday.
Oct 26, 2008 | | Book