…from US Golf Open to Mysore’s Dolphin Cup
By Dr. Eskay Ghori
It was a wonderful morning at the JWGC Golf Club in Mysore reminding me of the day I set out to watch the US Golf Open in San Francisco on June 14, 2012. My son Zaid Ghori had bought me a ticket to the US Open as a Father’s Day surprise gift. Back here, the Dolphin Cup Golf Tourney was being played in Mysore when a lady golfer walked in with her daughter-in-law. I exchanged pleasantries and promised to catch up with them at Regaalis hotel in the evening where the prize distribution and a grand dinner party was organised by the Dolphin members.
For the first time since June 14 last year, I practiced a few shots and putted, the game and the swing was there and thought of future golf as a would-be 62-year-old man having played a handicap of 3 as a youngster and having won many a golf tournament in Nigeria, England and India.
It was 7.30 pm and all dressed formal for the evening, I stepped in accompanied by my wife Dr. Reshma Ghori to the poolside party at Regaalis. I saw Indira Venkatraman seated with her daughter-in-law Jennifer, who is an American lawyer living in San Francisco, California, USA, wearing a wonderful saree. I was told by Indira, the golfing lady member and a good socialite, that I have lost weight. I said, “Yes I am on weight control as advised by my doctor as I had a cardiac event, in simple terms a heart attack, at the US Open Golf Championship at the Olympic Club in Daly City near to San Francisco — a very challenging golf course by the Pacific Ocean, hilly with cold breeze blowing. I had forgotten to take my jacket in all the excitement to meet Vijay Singh whom I happened to know in Nigeria from his rookie days. Indira told me that her son Anand was a marshall at the US Open at Olympic Club and he was at the dinner at Regaalis.
As we were talking, her son Anand Venkatraman walked in and I asked him, “You marshalled at the Olympic Club in the US Open on the 14th of June 2012?” He said, “Yes, I did.” I asked him, “Do you remember a golfing spectator collapsed and was pronounced dead and the US Open came to a stand still for a few minutes, even Tiger Woods had to wait!” He said, “Yes, I was told he was an Indian.” I said, “Well Anand, it is me the dead man alive and fine, thanks to marshalls like you and the team of cardiologists who happened to be watching golf on the 14th tee box where Vijay Singh was teeing off. I collapsed and my heart, I was told, stopped for 3 minutes.” On hearing this, Anand was so overjoyed that he embraced me.
I was very lucky. They rushed me after giving me first aid and had me in a hospital in the nick of time and a life was saved like so many lives that are saved every minute in the United States with their state-of-art medical services — the emergency response team.
I felt like sharing this coincidence with my long-time friend and Editor-in-Chief of Star of Mysore K.B. Ganapathy who was enjoying the party with JWGC Captain P.M. Ganapathy, JWGC President Dr. P.A. Kushalappa and Dr. Joshi of the Dolphins who had invited us.
Is it not destiny that I had to meet Anand Venkatraman here in Mysore, a software marketing wizard who lives in San Francisco and a marshall. God, the supreme power, has many surprises for us in many ways — when it’s not your time to go up the seven skies, it’s not and when it is time to go, nothing can stop the order from God Almighty.
As a medical doctor who has spent all my career in the emergency rooms in India, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, I have seen many a drama. But when it happened to me, I realised the value of a good emergency response. As lady luck would have it, I met a friend John Paul, an American golfing spectator whom I later called an angel who stayed by my side till the evening until my family arrived.
The excellent services at Seton Medical Center, a cardiac specialist hospital in San Francisco whose Medical Director Dr. Hasselherst was the one who gave me CPR with the help of an Aneasthetist Dr. Martin, who incidentally works at Loma Linda Hospital with Dr. Ramdas Pai, a Cardiologist who happens to be my friend and junior at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, and told him that an Indian doctor had collapsed.
I did call Dr. Pai as soon as I was well enough to call from Seton Medical Center. He was also watching golf at the 14th tee of Loma Linda Hospital and the world-famous cardiac surgeon Interventionist Dr. Felix Milhouse and Dr. Gauhar Khan, a cardiologist at Modesto California, who took care of my follow-ups.
The time when one gets to the age of 60 is very crucial. One must get a heart check every year, a simple ECG, consult your family physician, eat a lot of vegetables and stick to a healthy diet, go for walks and keep stress at bay.
I cannot but less thank my wife Dr. Reshma Ghori, my son Zaid Ghori and would-be daughter-in-law Shanaz Ahamed for all the care and attention given for me to be back in Mysore with my friends and daughter Nisha Ghori, who travelled to the US to see me and brought me home. While I was getting well, I had an august visitor in Dr. Shivaram Malavalli who gave me much inspiration as his brother, urologist Dr. Sitaram Malavalli, also living in Modesto California where I lived.
The world is a small place and I always believed in the world as a place rather than a place as the world. Thank you God for this new life. Life is a very precious gift from God, take good care of it. I told my son Zaid Ghori that he not only bought me a gift of a ticket for Father’s Day but ended up giving me the gift of LIFE.
[Dr. Eskay Ghori runs Jubilee Clinic at Sareniza Villa in N.R. Mohalla, Mysore. Mob: 9945852340]
source: http://www.StarofMysore.com /Home> Feature Articles / January 19th, 2013