Dr. Ayasha Akter Rina
DMC K-69
Intern Doctor,Medicine Unit-8, Dhaka Medical College Hospital
I come from such a family where female education or their higher studies were not much encouraged. The belief went like this that it was enough for a girl to study upto SSC or HSC level and then get married off to someone. When I was in 7 I had a home tutor. He once told me that I'd be married off within 5 years. Each year passed and I counted them one by one. After passing HSC I wanted to seek him out and tell him how wrong his prediction was. I'd give credit to my mother, she always wanted to see her daughter thrive. It was her support that took me furthest in academic prowess among all female members of my family.
I was a bookworm from childhood. I was given 6 taka pocket money for school everyday. I would buy ring chips with 3 taka and keep the rest. I made about 15 taka at the end of the week this way and went to "Arong" to buy books. There BRAC sold illustrated Disney books. I had the whole collection. Besides that a fixed amount of money was kept for the book fair. The money was divided into us 4 siblings according to our age. Still now I get an allowance from my father to buy books in the fair. Be it borrowing from people or the library, I never gave up on reading. From Henry Rider Haggard to Stephen King, from Conan Doyle to Margaret Atwood- I read whatever I liked.
My coming to medical was mainly my parents wish. My aim in life was to become a computer engineer. I was going to fulfill it when I got chance in CSE department of Dhaka University. But I left after a few months. My new home was DMC. It was tough at the beginning but I adopted eventually. Here I first started quizzing. Till now I've participated in a lot of quiz competitions as a member of the DMC Quiz Team. We won some too. It's an amazing feeling altogether to represent your institution elsewhere.
My journey in DMC campus is almost at an end. As an intern doctor I have mixed feelings. The most beloved doctors of the hospital are the interns. The professors try to teach you everything first hand and the CA,Registrar, IMO's all are very helpful too. But the experience turns bitter when handling VIP patients. Their attendants makes it difficult to work independently. Nonetheless it's true that there are no other place better than DMC to learn. I still remember the night when for the first time a patient died on my hands. It was the Neuro ward, the patient a case of acute cervical myelitis. When looked into his dilated pupil,it was like I was able to look through the whole world. I still haven't forgotten his face. But this is the life of a doctor. A patient will live through your one hand and die on the other. My life lesson is to understand your own potential. We have to know our abilities and accept our limitations as well. Because once we accept our limits, that is when we can go beyond them.