New Delhi: From playing his favourite music to getting him to watch football on television, Deepa Dasmunsi is doing everything she can in the hope that her husband, former Information & Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, will respond.
In Apollo Hospital for the last eight months since he suffered a second heart attack last October, Dasmunsi does not recognise anybody, nor does he speak. All that the doctors are ready to say is that he is “not in coma” and neurologically, “there is status quo”.
Deepa says she wakes up everyday with the hope that “maybe, today is the day” when he might recognise her and respond. “He is moving his eyes and shoulders. If there is a noise, he looks in that direction. Now when we shift him on a chair, he sits without assistance. If you look at him, you feel he is about to speak. But there is no significant change in his condition,” she told The Sunday Express.
She says that someone who recovered from coma had once told her that though he couldn’t speak, he could hear his mother’s voice. Since then, Deepa says she has been telling her husband “every small detail”. “He could be listening to me even if he doesn’t respond. He should know what is happening all around. Anything might trigger a recovery. That is why I update him daily,” says Deepa, 48.
And so, Deepa and the doctors are doing everything they can in the hope of a recovery: playing his favourite CDs, turning on the news channels he used to watch, and the football matches he loved. His old friends and associates visit him and recount stories and incidents. But Dasmunsi remains a passive listener.
Deepa says she consulted many doctors abroad and all of them said she would have to wait with fingers crossed. In the meantime, she tried out homeopathy and ayurveda, even got Baba Ramdev to visit Dasmunshi in hospital, but nothing worked. Given the risk of infection—Dasmunsi is fed through tubes and his breathing is assisted—doctors are not in favour of shifting him home at this stage.
It’s tough for Deepa. Their 11-year-old son used to visit Dasmunsi in hospital, but pained at his father’s condition, he has stopped going there of late.
“Yes, it is very difficult for me. He was so active, but for the last eight months...One has to accept the reality. I know I have to face it,” she says.
The party and the government have been very helpful, she says. While the government continues to bear the medical expenses, party leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, are constantly in touch with Deepa.
