When Ragav opened his eyes the next time, he saw Preeti in front of him. She appeared tired with dark spots under her eyes. Even then, she smiled at him. Raghav moved his head to get up from the bed.
"No, dear. You need to rest"
Raghav wanted to speak but he was struggling. Preeti came closer to him and placed her hand on his cheek.
"Everything is fine. You will get better soon"
Raghav tried to produce a smile. He lifted his right arm to touch Preeti's face but he was stunned by what he saw. His arm was missing from the elbow. That is when he got back to his senses and realized it was not a dream. He had lost his right arm forever.
***
After a month and a half of rest, Raghav decided to get back to AIIMS and work on his bionic arm project. He was surprised by how much progress Joseph had made in that time.
He had tested a similar bionic device by inserting electrodes into a rabbit's brain. Surprisingly, the rabbit could use the bionic limb as if it were its real limb. Brain scan data also revealed that the rabbit could feel touch and pressure just like it would feel from a normal body part. However, AIIMS didn't approve the device for human trials.
"Wow! That's a lot of progress while I was away"
"Yup. But we need further animal testing before we begin human trials"
"No, Joseph. I have lived without an arm for almost two months. It is time to use it on myself"
"Raghav, it is not safe. Besides, the institute hasn't approved it"
"We don't have to do this in the institute"
"Raghav! Stop being stupid. I am not risking my job with this"
"I don't want to risk your job either. I am gonna do this on my own"
***
Raghav brought the arm to his home lab. Joseph tried a lot to stop him, but Raghav was too impatient. He didn't want to let Raghav risk his life, so he accompanied Raghav to his home just to make sure things didn't go wrong. Raghav made sure his wife was at work when he brought the bionic arm home. He knew she wouldn't let him do what he was doing to himself.
Raghav strapped the bionic arm to his elbow. This time there were many more wires. Five wires connected to the fingers like before and one to the wrist. There were seven more probes that monitored heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure, body temperature, and x, y, and z acceleration of the right elbow. Finally, there was one electrode that was to be connected to the brain. But this was not to be attached directly to the brain via the head. Instead, Joseph designed it to be connected to the sensory nerves on the amputated arm that would then take the signal to the brain. This was the part that Joseph feared could go wrong.
"For the first test, I will be using a non-contact electrode on your arm. This will pass the signal into the sensory nerve via an electric field through your skin"
Joseph then connected a power supply to the bionic arm and touched one of the fingers.
"Do you feel anything?"
"No. I can't even move the arm"
"Damn it"
"Forget the non-contact electrode. Use the insert probe"
"Raghav, it can be dangerous"
"I'll be fine. Let's connect the power for a brief period"
Joseph agreed and inserted the needle-like probe into Raghav's arm above the elbow.
"Ready?"
"Let's do it!"
He turned the power on, waited for two seconds, and immediately turned it off.
"Holy shit! I felt it! I felt the arm! Turn it on again, Joseph!"
Joseph turned it on again and touched his bionic finger. The arm lifted up and gave Joseph a handshake. Joseph looked at Raghav and found him smiling.
"My first handshake with you with a bionic arm"
But Raghav soon noticed something.
"No! No... No… No!"
"What happened, Raghav?"
The bionic arm quickly moved and touched his own left arm.
"Shit, shit! I can't feel my other arm!"
"What?"
"Turn it off, turn it off now!"
Joseph immediately switched off the power. At that exact moment, Raghav noticed a bright flash in front of him and the bionic arm dropped down.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I can feel my left arm now. What was that flash?"
"What flash?"
Raghav realized it was not a physical flash of light. It was his brain messing with his eyes.
"Nothing, nothing. Let's take it back to the institute. I think we need more testing"
"You okay, Raghav?"
"Yeah, I'm totally fine. I feel normal now"
***
When Raghav told about the incident to Preeti, she became furious.
"Have you gone mad? How on earth could you test it on yourself?"
"Don't worry, we had successfully carried out animal testing before. A few tweaks and I can use it to–"
"No way. You are not putting that damn thing on your arm again"
After some more arguments, the two went to sleep. But Raghav kept thinking about what went wrong and how he could fix the bionic arm. Soon, he fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, he woke up unexpectedly. He wanted to grab a glass of water. But he couldn't.
"Ahh! I can't feel my other arm again!"
He fainted out of panic. He next saw himself in the hospital.
"Mr. Raghav, we have to amputate your left arm too"
"Noooo…"
He immediately woke up. He looked around. He was still in his bedroom. Faint sunlight lit up the curtains on the windows. Preeti was still asleep beside him. He could feel his left arm.
"It was a dream. Thank God!"
He stood up and grabbed the water bottle beside the bed. But he was shocked by what he saw.
"What the f*ck?"
He couldn't believe his eyes. His right arm was back!
"Preeti, Preeti wake up"
"What happened?"
"My arm, my arm is back!"
"What?"
"Look, my right arm is back. It was amputated right?"
"Amputated?"
"Yeah, don't you remember?"
"Stop fooling around. Let me sleep"
Raghav was confused. Was that a dream too? Did he never have a tumor on his arm? But it was too real for it to be a dream. Something didn't seem right.
He immediately grabbed his phone to dial Joseph's number. It felt weird as he did it with his right hand. He clearly remembered it had been about two months since his right arm was removed.
Raghav kept scrolling but Joseph's contact seemed to be missing.
"That's odd"
He immediately grabbed his car keys and drove to AIIMS. Joseph sometimes worked in the night shift. There was a good chance he would still be in the institute.
When he arrived at AIIMS, a guard stopped him at the gate. It was Ramesh.
"ID please"
Ramesh knew Raghav very well and never asked him for his ID. Raghav was confused about why he was asking for an ID that day. Maybe there was some external inspection?
Raghav pulled out his ID from the bag. When he showed it, Ramesh simply nodded left and right.
Raghav was confused. He looked at his ID to see if something was wrong. He was stunned by what he saw.
Raghav Basu
Sr. Lecturer
Department of Biotechnology
Manipal University
***