Repentance of a blood donor.

Almost all of my barracks buddies had donated blood during the training period.Each donor was given 7 days leave, a blood donor card and Rs 5000 as reward for the blood donation. This motivated almost everyone to donate blood. Our training school was always flooded with request for blood donors and our authority never kept requests unattended. I too had a silent desire to donate.One day I got a chance. A man Mr. Pathak , in his late sixties was admitted to Guwahati Medical College in a very serious condition. He was suffering from melena. He stayed in training school staff quarters as his son was an employee of Assam Police. The next morning we were informed that around five donors of any group were urgently required. Five trainees including me voluntered to donate. The four other volunters were Krishna, Jitendra, Amal and Lakhi. We were all carted to the hospital in the training school bus. We reached the hospital at around 1130 hrs. We were greeted by the patients son outside his cabin. He was not sure whether his father would survibe or not. Five units of blood were already being transfused into his body. I asked him to have faith in the almighty and everything will be fine. We were led to the blood transfusion room where our blood groups were tested. Mine was B+ve.Blood pressure was also checked. Soon we donated a unit of blood each. This was to be exchanged for the patients blood group in the blood bank. The patients son gave us each a bottle of Glucon D and four Ras gullas. He thanked us from the bottom of his heart and wishing good luck we soon left for our training school. On the way Krishna unboarded at Maligaon to buy a full bottle of XXX Rum and snacks. We arrived at around 4.00 pm. My friends emptied the full bottle of XXX rum and played cards , had dinner and slept. I too had dinner puffed some cigarretes and went to sleep. At midnight i was awaken by loud sounds of coughing. I saw Nilutpal coughing and going to the toilet. Nilutpal was among the fifty cadets training with us. Seeing him going to toilet I too had the urge to empty my bladder. As I crawled from under the mosquito net Nilutpal was back. I went to the toilet. The toilets were four steps higher than the level of the barrack. I climbed the four steps. Time was 2.30 AM at night. It was a cold December night. As I tried to urinate I suddenly lost sense and fell down. When I gained sense I was lying on the ground. The clear sky was slowly visible to me. I couldnot feel my hands or legs. I was wondering how I came here, I was sleeping on my bed. As time passed I remembered everything. I was gaining sense in my hands and legs. I felt a deep pain at the back of my head and neck. I slowly moved my right hand and felt the back of my head. It swelled like a tennis ball. There was pin drop silence. Every one was fast asleep inside the barrack. I didnot have the strength to stand up. So I Crawled and reached my bed. My neck and head was paining severely. Bad thoughts were coming to my mind. My head was not bleedind , yet it was swollen. I thought there might be some internal bleeding. After about 1 hour my bed mate Chiranjit was woken up by my movements. He enquired me why I was awake. I asked him if he had any painkillers and narrated the whole nightmare. He jumped from his bed and gave me painkiller and water. The pain at the back of my head decreased but the neck pain was unbearable. I was taken to Sanjeevani hospital the next morning in the ambulance. There I was diagonised with a very high BP and low blood sugar. I was sent to Primus scanning center to have a CT scan of the head. I had to stay in Sanjeevani hospital for a night as Doctors suggested one night observation. The CT scan and neck X-Ray reports were normal. But I had severe neck muscle injury. I had to take thirty days home rest for my neck injury. I wore a neck collar for one month. When I Returned to barrack I saw Mr Pathak happily reading a newspaper. I was still wearing the collar. When I reached barracks my barracks buddies handed me one letter from Mr Pathak. He thanked us for the precious blood that we donated. He said he owed his life to all five of us.....
Inspite of my repentance i thought if I had taken some few pegs of rum with my friends , that incident would not have occured that night. I will never forget this incident in my whole life. I never donated blood again .....