Dedicated to those who leave us behind.....!

August 17th, 2012 

In Memory of the late Doctor Sewdath Sadal

by "The Satvic Chef" on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 9:47am ·

[Excerpt from "The Satvic Chef: The Anti-Inflammatory Diet"]

The Satvic Chef

Foreword:

Remembering my father's passing twelve years ago

Back in April 2001, I still remember the last conversation I had with my father. We had this conversation in the kitchen of my Manhattan apartment one day after he had his kidney dialysis done. The rosy color would always come back to his cheeks after one these kidney-dialysis sessions. At age 59, he had only 30% of his kidney functioning due to his type-1 Diabetes and Hypertension, but he kept up with his spirit and planned to start a non-for-profit international organ-donation organization. He was frantically searching and emailing doctors in India and South-America in search for a matching kidney. The doctors warned him that his condition has already placed him in an immuno-compromised status and a kidney transplant could be fatal. He refused to take a kidney from any of his children. The day he took his flight back to Suriname, he snuck out with my mother while I was taking my morning shower. I heard it and rushed out with a towel around me to catch them before they would step into the elevator and yelled at my mother why they would leave without saying goodbye. My father responded to me that if I would keep on yelling at my mother, he would never come back to see me again. And he never did.

On August 17, 2001 on my brother's birthday and at his retirement party at the Dermatology Services of Suriname, he had his 3rd massive stroke while he was giving his farewell speech he practiced so hard on days before. He kept on speaking despite the fact that he was slurring and people had to urge him to take a brake and rest. The ambulance arrived and he was wheeled to the intensive care department of the hospital. The stroke was so massive that he had to be placed on the respirator. My mother had to make the horrible decision to let him go. His body was still very warm for a long time after they turned the respirator off.

Exactly three weeks after my father's passing, the Twin-Towers disintegrated. While in grieving it felt like I had lost my father in there. I remembered at the time of his last visit in New York City back in April 2001, we passed through the shopping mall of the Twin-Towers and he was so desperate to take the elevator up to the top of those buildings. But because of his illness he was so weak and we had to forfeit that attraction. I realize now that whatever existed back then just vanished in thin air.

Being a medical doctor, my father was not a stranger to his own condition himself and neither to the idea of health prevention. He represented his country Suriname in the World Health Organization with the condition of Leprosy and how to prevent this. He even created this slogan in his glory years as the chief of the Dermatological Services in Paramaribo, capital of Suriname saying "Elk Vlek Is Het Onderzoek Waard" (translated: every spot on the skin is worth an inspection). Leprosy was a disease caused by a flesh eating bacteria. After the incubation period the first sign of leprosy appears like an innocent skin rash, a sign that the infection still can be reversed and this point and such a skin rash is usually easily overlooked by people. Just with taking the preventative action by going to the doctor and having the new skin rash inspected, leprosy can be prevented. In order to be very successful in his campaign, my father had to build up the awareness and caution within the Surinamese community with his health promotion campaign. Later on, in the 80's it became the case again with HIV infections.

While providing his dedication to health prevention to anyone else, my father never saw it coming for him as well that one day his kidney would deteriorate due to his type-1 Diabetes.  I remembered that we cooked sugar-free, low-fat and low sodium food all the time in family meals because of him. We engaged in exercising, jogged and danced a lot. But what killed my father was his genetic predisposition of Diabetes and Hypertension at which he already developed at an early age and detected at age 25. I may have grown up with a childhood more conscious of prolonging healthy life-style habits; but he did not -until he was officially diagnosed with these killer diseases at that young age. He was already a recreational drinker and occasionally relished his Havana cigars, but why should he deprive himself of such pleasures after a long day's of work.

I had a healthy childhood back in Suriname, until I came to the United States at age 23 and then my genetic predisposition of Obesity and Diabetes type-2 started to kick in. I am not a diabetic, because I managed to keep my weight under 160 lbs. Still, it took a Yo-yo cycle to bounce back and forth unhealthy and healthy weight. My brothers battled childhood obesity and then had thinner teenage years during the 80's, but then it became a battle again after they hit the age of 30. I am not born and raised here in the United States, never grew up as a child eating sugary cereals. I grew up in Suriname, where it is a tropical climate and people have no issue keeping their weight in control.

This experience has made me question the following: What are exactly the standards of a successful healthy lifestyle and what is the success in adopting and adapting to newly introduced healthy life style habits. Why don't we stick to healthy lifestyle habits all the time? Why are the pleasures things we enjoy unhealthy for us? Are our cultural customs harmful to our health? And I can go on and on questioning myself about this issue.

But today, I offer a flower and Holy Water from the Ganges River in his honor and remembrance!

Ratna Sadal – The Satvic Chef!