I am proud to be a doctor!
Dr. Smita Dipankar 
My journey as doctor juggling family, child and career has been a roller coaster ride. But every moment of it has been worth it for me!
I am proud to be a doctor and especially an Anaesthesiologist.
I was in the 7th std, when I made the decision of becoming a doctor. With the constant support of my parents and my teachers, I studied hard, got into medical college, completed M.B.B.S. Without even a single day's break, immediately started Post graduation (PG) in anaesthesiology. Later I got married, to my husband who was doing his PG in Radiology then. Juggling married life and 24X7 duties in hospital, I successfully completed my PG. Later within a year, I became a mother to a baby girl and I took a long awaited break from being a doctor after continuously working in the hospital for 3+ years. Restarted my career as an anesthesiologist after 18 months after spending quality time with my baby.
Since then, my journey has been a roller coaster ride with:
The sleepless days & nights in the ICU managing patients fighting through life and death.
Attending the emergency calls for anaesthesia day and night.
Leaving home in the morning for routine cases, but not knowing when the cases will be over and what time I’ll be back home.
With a heavy heart, leaving behind my crying baby at home to go for an emergency Caesarean section to help a distressed mother to welcome her baby.
Having no one to take care, my daughter accompaning me to the hospital, sitting, playing & eating in the room outside the operation theatre with the staff.
The challenges of juggling career with managing home, ageing parents & parents-in-laws, husband and all my daughter's needs.
The constant guilt of not eating on time or taking care of myself and no time to travel and enjoy life like my non-medico friends.
All this is outweighed by the eternal happiness I feel in these moments:
A patient brought to the hospital, with a feeble pulse, later a flat line seen on the monitor and finally comes back to life after a successful CPR (Cardio pulmonary resusitation).
The experience of giving a mother painless labour with an epidural anaesthesia or a spinal anaethsia for ceasarean section. Seeing the happiness and tears in her eyes as she touches her newborn for the 1st time in the OT.
The feeling of satisfaction while telling the relatives that their loved one is out of danger and will be back with them soon.
Being there to relieve the anxiety and stress of the patient and relatives before and after a major surgery.
Fighting with death, for a patient in Coma, never giving up even if the chances of survival are almost nil and finally winning when the patient comes back alive, goes home hale and hearty, sometimes after 1-6 months in the hospital.
Experiencing the pain just like the patient’s relatives and having sleepless nights, when inspite of all efforts and prayers, the patient leaves us for heavenly abode.
Many many more such heart warming moments during my journey of 18+ years and counting…
Such moments make me feel blessed and grateful that I became a doctor and it’s totally worth it for me.
To save lives and facilitate birth are opportunities given to a chosen few and I am blessed to be one of them.
If asked, whether I would like to change my life as a doctor, my answer will always be a big NO. My wish is that every life, I want to be reborn as a doctor.
“Each and every moment of my life, I am proud to be a Doctor.”
- Dr. Smita Dipankar.
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