It was just a word,

A ‘mantra’

To be uttered 

when we got stuck

We hadn’t  seen it 

hadn’t read much about it

It was sparingly mentioned

in our textbooks.

But our seniors reiterated that 

we could fit it in anywhere 

If we ran out of our list of investigations 

and the examiner wanted more

we could invoke it.

It was the king of all diagnostic tools.

X-rays to see bones and stones

Collapsed lungs and enlarged hearts 

were routine, 

Modalities we had grown up with,

But  to assess the abdomen 

the legendary Pandora’s box

without cutting it open

seemed magical.

To evaluate soft tissues and solid organs

to see what is happening on the inside

from the outside , 

sounded unbelievable 

It made diagnostic laparotomy 

sound outdated

almost barbaric.

I saw it for the first time as a Junior resident

A small TV with a grainy picture 

I was surprised that the radiologist could make anything of it

To my untrained eyes it was like staring at the moon.

You could see what you wanted to see

A smiling face or an old woman at the spinning wheel.

But that was just the beginning.

Slowly I began to notice the different shades of grey.

The interplay of light and shadows 

In cysts and tumours 

An abscess ready to be drained

Or a benign lesion

requiring  patient  ‘wait and watch ‘

Body functions in real time

urine filling the bladder, 

food propelled in the gut 

and the declaration of life

a tiny heart beat.

As technology  advanced 

images  became clearer

Making it possible to see

Blockage to blood flow

A malfunctioning heart valve

A ripped retina causing blindness

The reason of a numb limb

or a swollen joint

It was possible to ascertain the release of 

an egg from the ovary

and predict whether the uterine lining

was primed to receive it. 

With some expertise, it could be told

when a pregnancy

didn’t  make it to the womb

and got embedded elsewhere.

Putting the mother at grave risk

In cases of trauma, in a flash

it could tell whether

there was internal bleeding necessitating surgery

A tendon rupture or a lacerated spleen

Air pressing on the lungs or blood around the heart

Used on the road side 

It could save lives by saving time.

With perfect picture quality and the option of 3D images

It can show a baby yawning out of boredom 

Or lustily sucking at its thumb

Getting entangled in loops of umbilical cord

Or sleeping soundly.

It is possible to check the baby’s  

eye movements 

And heart valves

Count fingers and toes

Look for cleft lips and open spine defects

Diagnose conditions requiring expert neonatal care

So that a team is ready when the baby emerges

With colour Doppler we can predict 

if the womb is inhospitable, fetal demise is eminent 

and deliver the baby before it is too late,

It can diagnose defects incompatible with life

So that pregnancies can be terminated, 

Curtailing  the misery, lessening the heartache.

But just as it  shows everything else

It can also show the genitalia of the unborn child,

which in our society is synonymous with female feticide. 

Because in a son crazy nation, 

a daughter will be killed ASAP,

The fear of misuse has condemned 

the  modality to disuse.

Buried in tons of paperwork 

and tied in miles of red tape

It will never reach its full potential 

An inexpensive, easily available, fairly accurate

diagnostic tool will die prematurely, 

soundlessly.

As developed nations  

exploit this technology

And make it available 

not only in hospitals and clinics

but in

ambulances and sports arenas

to hasten diagnosis 

expedite treatment

and reduce mortality 

We are curbing its reach.

The efforts to curtail its use 

and limit the number of users

has had mixed results. 

While the sex ratio at birth 

has somewhat stabilised.

The child sex ratio continues to fall.

The fault is not in the machine

It is in the mindset 

Till that changes

Nothing will change

because 

A daughter can be eliminated

after she is born….

An Ultrasound is not a

prerequisite to kill a girl child!!