He walked into my clinic and placed a bottle on my table. A bottle of insecticide.
This disease has long been called the 'suicide disease'. In recent times, it briefly returned to public conversation when actor Salman Khan spoke about his experience with facial pain. But two decades ago one man gave me a lesson in its brutality I will never forget.
Until 2004, I performed Microvascular Decompression [MVD] surgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia but not with the urgency and singular focus that now defines my practice. Then came an afternoon that changed the course of my life and shape of the work that we do at our neurosurgical centre in Pune today.
My clinic hours were over and I was ready to leave when my secretary hesitated at the door. "There's a gentleman who has come from very far", she whispered. "He looks quiet distressed. I think you should see him. I asked her to send him in. Years of treating this disease had prepared me for patients in pain, yet this man's appearance was startling. He was unshaven for days, his eyes were heavy. His right hand clutched a bag- his last hope.
"Are you Dr. Jayadev?" he asked with teeth clenched. Then he reached his bag and placed a bottle on my table labelled 'insecticide'. "Please tell me you can cure me or I will drink this and end the pain."
He had been suffering for six long years, surviving on high dose of anti-seizure medications. This man- a living proof that the disease could drive a person to the edge. Like the other patients he had been to various dentists in vain. The day he came to me, he was convinced that he needed surgery and so was I. Operation done, culprit found, a small artery.
