A few nights ago, I found myself confronting a fear that many people know instinctively but rarely describe. 

My body stopped functioning the way it should. Acute urinary retention gripped me with such force that every passing minute felt dangerous. 

Pressure built inside my abdomen, pain spread through my body, and thoughts raced through my mind: was it a stone? An infection? Severe inflammation? Something worse?

That night, I learned something troubling about public healthcare in Kashmir. 

The problem was larger than my illness. It was larger than one hospital, and involved two institutions, two different shortcomings, and one common consequence: patients suffering far more than they should.

My first stop was Sub-District Hospital Sopore. During a medical emergency, diagnosis becomes the first lifeline. A doctor may suspect the cause of an illness, but confirmation guides treatment. 

That is why I was stunned to discover that the hospital had no operational ultrasound facility after dark.

The absence of a nighttime USG service transformed a medical crisis into a desperate search for answers. 

Every minute felt longer than the one before it. My bladder felt swollen beyond endurance, and my kidneys seemed trapped under immense pressure. 

Doctors could not immediately determine the source of the problem because the diagnostic tool needed to identify it was unavailable.

Twenty-first-century medicine rests on speed. Stroke and heart attack patients race against time. Emergency cases depend on rapid diagnosis. 

A hospital serving a........

© Kashmir Observer