THE MOTHER TONGUE

     There is a story in the Indian literature.  There was a king and he had a very smart guy who was his adviser . Once upon a time the king had a visitor who spoke several languages very fluently. He was so good at speaking these language that no one could find out which one was his mother tongue. The visitor challenged the king , stating that he had heard that the king had several smart people at his disposal and asked him to tell the mother tongue. The king was not sure as to how to tell the mother tongue. So the king asked the adviser . He told the king that 'give me one day and I will tell you tomorrow ' . As the  visitor  went to sleep , this adviser went in his bed room and when he was asleep , poured some water on his face . The visitor was startered and woke up speaking in a particular language . The adviser apologised and left the bedroom . The next morning in the palace when the visitor arrived , and asked the king , if he dot the answer, the adviser answered that it was the language (that he spoke on suddenly waking up  from the sleep ). I had similer situation in my practice.
     I was in a gym one evening.  I have been going to this gym for few years. When I walked in , I saw the paramedics and all the members gathered at one place . On further inquiry I came to know that one of the members had cardiac arrest and then the paramedics were called in . The guy was really lucky as there were 2 doctors in the gym at that time . They knew and did CPR and then the paramedics came in , intubated the patient and started IV and then transferred him to the hospital.
    I was quite curious as to what happened to him at the hospital, so I called the hospital . As I called , I was told that He was on the respirator and I was consulted. So when I went to the hospital .
     He was a 45 years old Indian from Africa. He had sudden cardiac death , and was in coma . He was not breathing on own , being supported by the respirator. There was not much to do for me . The cardiologist was also seeing him , and I was going to support him on the respirator , as long as he was not awake( and hoping that he would wake up . ) I did speak to his wife , who happened to be white American . She was at his bed side almost all the time . He continued to be in coma for more than 48 hrs. I had call from his brother , who was a cardiologist and he flew in . On the 3rd day he was waking up very little . When I went in the wife was in the room . She was holding his hand and saying some thing like ,' honey wake up , this is ------, look at me ,  open your eyes, kids are waiting for you. ' And then his brother came in . He stood on the other side of the bed and spoke to him in 'his' mother tongue. I could not understand a word of it , but was very curious to know if he would 'respond ' to her ( wife ) or his question , which was in his mother tongue. I was not too sure what would happen , if he would answer to his brother who spoke in his mother tongue or to his wife . And what would she feel , if he did not respond to her and did to his brother.
     Fortunately he did not respond to either.
     He did wake up in next 24hrs and was off the respirator and did go home.