Subhash Chand Gupta (name changed) is 55 years old. He lives with his wife and a total of five children, out of which two are married. He is suffering from cancer of the throat and is aware of both the diagnosis and prognosis.

Subhash had a shop which he had to close down owing to his illness since he could no longer attend to the shop. Although his children work, they still struggle to make ends meet. Luckily for Subhash, his family is very supportive and a source of great strength for him to go through his treatment and suffering.

Subhash Chand Gupta’s treatment is going on at AIIMS and he has had many surgeries on his face which has resulted into disfigurement of his face. This takes a beating on his self-confidence and he constantly battles with shame of these physical changes on his face that in turn affects his social functioning. The disfigurement of his face makes him sad and he often plunges into hopelessness. He is also not able to speak clearly.

The CanSupport palliative care team has been visiting him regularly and listening to all his challenges and fears compassionately. The team helped him with symptom management and pain management of chemo therapy and radio therapy. The CanSupport team started their palliative care with pain management first and when gradually the pain reduced, other medications were given to treat other symptoms. One major problem Subhash was facing was that he was not able to sleep. Apart from medication the counsellor counselled him by listening to him and easing his troubled mind so that he could relax mentally and be able to sleep.

After his surgery he underwent tractotomy which needs continuous dressing and a PET tube. The team nurse educated him on how to do the dressing and how to take feed with the pet tube and what precautions he must take. The nurse helped him with all of this in detail.

The team counsellor listened to him very patiently as his speech is not so clear. Subhash has a very understanding personality and he is very cooperative.

After talking and listening to him patiently, the counsellor discovered that he was also suffering from a lot of guilt for chewing gutka which was the reason for his disease. The counsellor acknowledged these thoughts but also made him realise that there were so many people who suffered from the same disease, even children who had never chewed gutka but got the same disease so he must not feel guilty or burden his mind for chewing gutka in the past or look back on that and feel sad but rather focus on getting healed, and use his suffering to inspire other people to give up chewing gutka. This disease could happen to anyone. Owing to his perceptive personality, this touched a chord with him and helped him develop hope and inner strength.

The counsellor helped him to understand that he should not worry about the disfigurement of his face but look at the brighter side of having his life saved. Saving his life was more important than the disfigurement of his face.

Now when he goes out, he uses a scarf or a handkerchief around his face which protects his face from any infection due to pollution and it also covers up the deformities on the face.

Subhash is full of praise for the palliative care team of CanSupport and thankful for everything. He told the team that he would not have been not able to cope with all these situations without their support.

Now he doesn’t feel any shame to go out with his disfigured face and has gained much confidence.

We feel happy that we were able to help Subhash cope with his situation and that he is able to move about with dignity now and is able to face the social pressure of dealing with his disfigured face with a positive outlook.

There are many people like Subhash Gupta who need palliative care but they don’t know where to go. While CanSupport is doing its best to reach out to people informing them about their services, we request you to spread the word.

Share our Helpline Number 011-41010539 with all the needy people. Though all CanSupport services are free of charge for patients, the cost of reaching out to patients and caring for them cost Rs. 1400/- per visit per patient.

If you would like to support our cause, please donate at https://cansupport.org/donate