In my last post I mentioned about a baby's life I saved when I was a journalist. I want to explain the story because hopefully, if someone reads my blog and are interested in writing/journalism/reporting or just contributing a bunch of articles to social media websites, I hope this would give them some inspiration in some way.
It's not to boast and not make me a superior species of the normal journalistic, ballistic human race where sensationalism sells newspapers which overrules truth. However, I just want to say, what you write can mean saving a life, the difference between life and death and hope for a better tomorrow for someone else.
So this was the story I published back in May 2011. I was also undergoing a turbulent time in my relationship back then but the story really made me realise how much I was needed!
I interviewed this doctor who even though he was the Sri Lankan President's skin specialist, he was qualilfied in curing children with disabilities. But most Sri Lankans never knew the latter just the former.
Probably a week after the story appeared I got a call from a very good-accented English lady by the name of Mrs.Saldin asking for the doctor's number. I gave all the details I knew including the address of his clinic and what times he was in. She was happy and I never thought about it.
After about 6 months, I went back to this same doctor hoping to ask for more stories because I ran out of ideas for the health column and he and I got on well so I paid him a visit.
After I interviewed him, he told me about this lady from Badulla.
He said that she and her husband had trouble conceiving and wanted a baby so badly. They were quite well-to-do and had wealth but God hadn't blessed them with a bundle of joy. So one day, through an arrangement with someone, they went to the Kalubowila hospital in Colombo South and waited outside for 'rejected' babies. Little did they know, when they were 'given' one baby, they didn't know that his mother had rejected him because he had a disability. He had hydrocephalus (result of an imbalance between the formation and drainage of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain). It is commonly called 'Water in the Brain' because it looks as though the baby has water in his head.
Sadly, they didn't know this and when you adopt a child illegally, who can you turn to anyway? Definitely not the police!
When their foster baby was about 2 years old, the condition surfaced.
They were desperate and emotionally upset. The doctors in their area told that their adopted child would not live.
So one fine day, this article appears, and they call me for the doctor's details.
They visit the doctor whom I interviewed and he puts the baby on a course of treatment. There is surgery performed to filter out the fluid. In a few months time, the baby is hale and hearty! They are the best parents ever, in spite of being foster parents, they took in and sought to find any means necessary to save their adopted child!
When I heard this story, I just couldn't believe my ears! I mean, I was just a messenger, just a reporter but I had this one special gift - I could be a messenger and save lives!
For all my time in journalism in Sri Lanka, I never received any awards and since I worked for a government-controlled newspaper, I never thought I'd win anyway! But this was worth more than anything I've achieved in journalism - before my marriage and baby - or even my life!
So the morale of this post is to inspire people to write!
I was a rather accidental journalist but I knew I wanted to write. I never thought I would get a job at Sri Lanka's most-read weekly newspaper and thought my articles meant nothing being all government-controlled. But this story changed everything. Now when I'm sad or disheartened, I know that there is a baby's life I saved all because of me!
So if you're out there, go and write, get anybody to publish your articles, you never know whose life you will save! Stop thinking you're not good enough or you're not qualified enough or you don't fit the bill. Just take that pen and put it to paper, tap those words from your keyboard and text those words on your iPhone! A small difference means a world of change!
It's not to boast and not make me a superior species of the normal journalistic, ballistic human race where sensationalism sells newspapers which overrules truth. However, I just want to say, what you write can mean saving a life, the difference between life and death and hope for a better tomorrow for someone else.
So this was the story I published back in May 2011. I was also undergoing a turbulent time in my relationship back then but the story really made me realise how much I was needed!
I interviewed this doctor who even though he was the Sri Lankan President's skin specialist, he was qualilfied in curing children with disabilities. But most Sri Lankans never knew the latter just the former.
Probably a week after the story appeared I got a call from a very good-accented English lady by the name of Mrs.Saldin asking for the doctor's number. I gave all the details I knew including the address of his clinic and what times he was in. She was happy and I never thought about it.
After about 6 months, I went back to this same doctor hoping to ask for more stories because I ran out of ideas for the health column and he and I got on well so I paid him a visit.
After I interviewed him, he told me about this lady from Badulla.
He said that she and her husband had trouble conceiving and wanted a baby so badly. They were quite well-to-do and had wealth but God hadn't blessed them with a bundle of joy. So one day, through an arrangement with someone, they went to the Kalubowila hospital in Colombo South and waited outside for 'rejected' babies. Little did they know, when they were 'given' one baby, they didn't know that his mother had rejected him because he had a disability. He had hydrocephalus (result of an imbalance between the formation and drainage of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain). It is commonly called 'Water in the Brain' because it looks as though the baby has water in his head.
Sadly, they didn't know this and when you adopt a child illegally, who can you turn to anyway? Definitely not the police!
When their foster baby was about 2 years old, the condition surfaced.
They were desperate and emotionally upset. The doctors in their area told that their adopted child would not live.
So one fine day, this article appears, and they call me for the doctor's details.
They visit the doctor whom I interviewed and he puts the baby on a course of treatment. There is surgery performed to filter out the fluid. In a few months time, the baby is hale and hearty! They are the best parents ever, in spite of being foster parents, they took in and sought to find any means necessary to save their adopted child!
When I heard this story, I just couldn't believe my ears! I mean, I was just a messenger, just a reporter but I had this one special gift - I could be a messenger and save lives!
For all my time in journalism in Sri Lanka, I never received any awards and since I worked for a government-controlled newspaper, I never thought I'd win anyway! But this was worth more than anything I've achieved in journalism - before my marriage and baby - or even my life!
So the morale of this post is to inspire people to write!
I was a rather accidental journalist but I knew I wanted to write. I never thought I would get a job at Sri Lanka's most-read weekly newspaper and thought my articles meant nothing being all government-controlled. But this story changed everything. Now when I'm sad or disheartened, I know that there is a baby's life I saved all because of me!
So if you're out there, go and write, get anybody to publish your articles, you never know whose life you will save! Stop thinking you're not good enough or you're not qualified enough or you don't fit the bill. Just take that pen and put it to paper, tap those words from your keyboard and text those words on your iPhone! A small difference means a world of change!
