Mystory@Dr Richa Saxena: How I made my career – Challenges and successes

Mystory@Dr Richa Saxena

It was in the summer of 1992, when my medical journey started. After class 12, I decided to take the DPMT exam, (now replaced by AIPMT/NEET-UG). My examination center for the exam was St Stephen’s College, Delhi. In those days, it was considered quite prestigious to become a doctor and I was trying my best to realise my dream of becoming one.

Coming to the examination, it was 3 hours long. When I came out of the examination hall, I saw my parents waving excitedly at me asking, “Richu, how was the exam?” “No hope!”, I declared with my heart sinking. I added, “I have not attempted 40 questions because I had no idea about the answer.” I had been advised by my teachers not to randomly guess the answers of the questions about which I had no idea to avoid negative marking. Anyway, the exam was over and I forgot about it until the day of result. I was completely unaware that the result had been declared until a friend told me. Though I was not at all expecting to get through, I had to check the results as a formality. In the 90s the results were put up on the notice board with names and ranks of the candidates.

I was frantically searching for my roll number. Someone had highlighted top 180 ranks. The first 4-5 sheets, no highlights, I also could not find my roll number. And suddenly, I saw my roll number, it was there. And near it was a highlighted number? It showed the number 50. I was perplexed, I could not understand this? Then an elderly gentleman, who had probably come to see his child’s result, asked me what the confusion was. I requested him to check my result.

“Beta congratulations, you have got the 50th rank, you shall probably get Maulana Azad medical college,” he said. And there I was, straight in MAMC (Maulana Azad Medical College), which became like a home for the next 51/2 years, until the completion of my MBBS degree. Next, came the MD degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. When you get an admission in an MBBS-MD course, you tend to feel that your future is secure because you would eventually become a doctor and enter clinical practice one day.

The setback

However life has its own ways. Everything does not turn out the way you want it to be. Following the completion of my MD, I decided to pursue further degree in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in UK. This degree is termed as MRCOG (membership of royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology). Obtaining this degree requires clearing part I MRCOG exam, which can be attempted from India. The other part of the MRCOG exam is attempted after a few years of practice in the specialisation of obstetrics and gynecology in the UK. I had cleared the part 1 of the MRCOG exam and went to the UK to pursue the part 2. But as I had mentioned before, destiny of each one of us has already been planned and at times there is little we can do to change it. Though I had gone to the UK to pursue my ambition, little did I know that it would eventually turn into a battle of survival. Few days after my stay in the foreign land, I suddenly became ill. Initially it started with cough and very high grade fever. The doctor’s diagnosis said it was pneumonia. While I was admitted in the hospital for undergoing pneumonia treatment, I also suffered a stroke, which caused paralysis of the left side of my body. No reason of this paralysis could be detected and I was transported within a few hours from the Nobel’s hospital, Isle of Man to the Walton’s neurology centre in Liverpool. First 3 months were a struggle for survival.

One battle won, I manage to survive. However, that was not enough….

Next fight was struggle for independence. The  independence to walk on my own, independence to get up from the wheel chair and walk without support; independence to perform normal activities of daily living; independence from antidepressant medicine and so on. And it had already begun. In the race of survival, my career had become completely side-lined. I had to visit the hospital every day to undergo physiotherapy.

Three years passed by. Physiotherapy had started showing its effect. I could now independently walk, even though slowly and with a limp. I became capable of performing most of the normal activities of daily life independently. Though my left leg had shown great improvement, my left arm had not shown much improvement. Over the period of time, it increasingly became clear that I probably would be able to lead a near normal life. However, it appeared impossible that I would be ever able to perform surgeries in future. Over these three years, I tried consoling myself to come in terms with this reality. I had also started looking for alternative career options such as radiology, medical pharmaceutical companies, etc. However, I soon realised that there might be no career option available for me in the foreign land. I even tried changing my career and becoming a teacher (for teaching Science subjects). I was desperately applying for various jobs (medical as well as non-medical), but all went in vain. I even wrote to the General Medical Council and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, UK, asking for alternative career options and career-related advice, which would be suitable for me. However, I did not get any positive response from anyone. Meanwhile, I started writing articles for a few websites. Initially I wrote on general topics. Soon I shifted to health-related articles and finally I moved on to writing academic-medicine-related articles. All this while, I was writing, just to kill time so that when I would wake up in the morning, I had something to do. I was still desperately applying for various medical jobs because my registration with the General Medical Council was expiring fast and I needed a job to extend it.

How I put my career back on track

Soon, my physiotherapy had nearly finished and I had to visit the OPD every month. I had become tired of such visits because one aspect of my recovery was the physical recovery which had nearly become stagnant. The other aspect of my recovery was my mental recovery, which depended on restoration of my career. No one, however, appeared to be concerned about that aspect. Eventually, on one such OPD visits, I encountered an Indian doctor, who finally asked me about my future career plans. I told him that I was trying to move towards medical writing, but I was not sure about how to go ahead. He referred me to his wife, who was a dentist, but preferred writing over the clinical medical practice. She used to edit articles for the British Medical Journal. She advised me to pursue some distance-learning publishing or writing course by the Publishing Training Centre, London. Though I was not really sure if the course would help me, I anyway decided to join it.

Before I could explore future options in publishing, I decided to return back to India. The option of opening up my own private medical practice was there in India, which was not there in the UK.

By the time I returned to India, I had already started writing academic articles for several websites and had successfully completed the course in publishing. Initially, I kept all my options open and started looking for opportunities in medical field as well as the field of publishing. Very soon I got a job in a reputed medical publishing company, where I am working for past 9 years. Presently, I am the Chief Editor and Head of the Editorial Department there. I have also authored several books on Obstetrics and Gynaecology for both undergraduates and post-graduate medical students. I also tried my hands at fiction and wrote a novel, “Joy of Living.” I have already written a book on part-1 MRCOG exam. At the moment, I am writing books for MRCOG part 2 exams, an exam which had become a dream because I could not even ever attempt it. I also write a blog on lessons of life, comprising of teachings, some of which I had learnt in my journey of life till now.  

The main lesson I learnt was that life is going to have its own ups and down. It is bound to give you things (both good and bad), which you expected the least. If life ever makes you fall, it is important not to give in, but to get up and fight back. This is the only way to be successful in life.

About the Author:

I am a doctor (MBBS, MD), an obstetrician gynaecologist and a published author.