Ravi Kiran, a cute little 4 year old boy had just moved in to my neighbourhood. It took only a few months to start loving him. Believe me, he was such a talkative boy for his age. One day when I returned from the college tired, my mother who was his best friend was gloomy. Apparently, Ravi was admitted in a private hospital that day morning as he had high grade fever and vomiting. When I called his father to enquire about little Ravi’s health, I was told that Ravi was suffering from “Meningitis”. The next day, when I visited him at the hospital, Ravi was in deep sleep. The poor kid was looking very tired. He was diagnosed with “Tuberculous Meningitis” which meant that the bacterium causing Tuberculosis had decided to injure Ravi’s brain instead of his lungs. The infection of the brain had caused the fever, vomiting, seizures and all the other symptoms. Ravi was discharged after about 2 weeks treatment at the hospital. Ravi had survived a deadly disease, but he wasn’t the same old active and talkative boy that everyone loved. He had lost his hearing sense due to the brain injury caused by the Meningitis and the hearing loss was going to be permanent. The disease had changed the life of a boy at such a young age. His parents were the culprits and they knew it.
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