I have never been a big fan of seat belts and used to wonder why people use seat belts in India.
Last week two of my colleagues met with an accident and guess who saved their lives and carreer?---Seat Belts
After seeing the benefit, I lock up when I sit in the car. Hope my readers and viewers would follow suit.
Read This Blog in your Language
Friday, September 26, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
25 Glorious Years
Apollo Hospitals, the pioneers of private health care and which changed the way health care was managed strides into its 25th year of operations.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Hospital tragedy in Chennai - PLEASE BE AWARE!
I am herewith attaching a forward, I am not sure about the authencity or truth of this. The reason for attaching is given at the end:
We were living in the UK for few years; our family includes me, my wife Padma), and our 7 yr old son and 8months old daughter. My wife had a symptom of ventral hernia (slightly bulged abdomen), we had consulted General Physician and Surgeon in the UK and advice was that she needed a surgery to have a mesh to fix the problem with a few weeks rest. We were also told that this is not an emergency and it can be done
anytime though earlier is good.
We were planning for Christmas vacation in India in Dec 2007, we thought we will consult some 'good' doctors over in India and take a decision of when we will do the surgery if required and possibly felt doing in India is good because of family support.
We landed in Chennai on 14th Dec 2007 for a three weeks vacation, met Dr in Chetput
We have explained him the background, shown him all the comments of UK surgeon, medical reports related to my wife pregnancy, deliveries, etc (she had delivered both our children normally). After few minutes of assessment Dr told us this hernia
requires laparoscopic surgery and we can do this next day itself. We were little concerned initially of getting this surgery done the very next day particularly we
were still not out of jet lag and she was feeding our baby) and got convinced with the 'salesy' words given by the Doctors. To quote a comment from the Doctor *"she will run in two days time and can lift two suitcases and you can return to UK as per your plan on 3rd Jan 2008"*). Also Dr told us that he will be on travel for 3 days from 17th Dec. Then my wife was put into all sorts of equipments in the hospital (in the name of assessment); blood, urine, ECG, MRI and so on and the tests were conducted till about 11pm on 15th Dec. In fact they have opened the labs after closing hours and got the test done and handed over the test results to us. Think of
it, we went our residence around midnight and my wife had rush on some food to keep compliance on the fasting 8 hrs prior to surgery. After preparing for the hospital visit that night and a couple of hours sleep (3 hrs or so) we reached (name deleted) hospital on 16th morning at 5am or so and from there we were transported by an 'ambulance' to Perungudi outskirts of Chennai).
In the meanwhile Dr returned from his travel and seen Padma on 19th evening along with other surgeons. He made an assessment and he told me that he might want to do one more laparoscopic surgery to find out what is the fluid about. He wanted to do a surgery on 20th Dec evening itself. On 20th Dec night, fluid started oozing from Padma's abdomen stitches, after the duty Doctor's assessment she was shifted to ICU. We really did not know what complication she developed in the ICU.
While I was discussing with the Doctors at ICU, the cashier in the hospital kept on calling me on my mobile. When I met the cashier he asked for Rs.60,000 to be paid immediately and I told him take Rs.40,000 and will give you the balance later in the day. Bang a reply came, "*you have to pay the money to for me to give clearance for surgery*". When I expressed my unhappiness about the comment, he insisted for me to sign a piece of paper saying that I will give the money later in the day. *(What
money minded, in-human attitude!)*
We have meet Dr at about 3:30pm on 21st Dec and understood that there was a *duodenum rupture* and he has fixed it, at the same time he removed the mesh which was fixed on 16th Dec. What we were puzzled were, how did the rupture happen? for that explanation given were - it could be due to ulcer. My wife had no evidence of
ulcer in the past.
On the same night (21st Dec) at about 930pm, I was called in to the ICU and Doctors conveyed that my wife condition is critical – her pulse is high, BP is low and they were attending to her. I insisted on talking to Dr immdly, but they refused to connect me to him at first and finally managed to speak to him. Dr came in around midnight and explained that the lungs are getting affected (shown X-ray of white patches on the lower portion of lungs) and she was the most serious patient in the whole hospital that time and they were trying their best. He also said, it will need
another 12-24 hours of observation before they can say anything.
At about 4:30am in the morning, my friend gained access the Doctors in the ICU and came out with the low face to tell me that Padma's condition is worsened. Again I tried to reach Dr and the hospital says they don't have his contact number (*just can't understand how they can behave like this). *Finally after some hue and cry came on line to tell me that he is not God and don't think his visit can do any thing different. I cried, begged him to come over to give some ideas to his team to recover Padma. He came over at around 6am and said they are trying everything
possible, etc; but her end came quickly. *
Teaching Points from the above
1. Never ever agree for immediate surgery if it is not an emergency. I do get patients wherein they are advised immediate surgery and I find no need for the same!
2. If the doctor is not accessible or could not be contacted, move to another.
3. If you feel you are not getting proper response or something fishy, move him/her to a different hospital after contacting the other hospital and explaining the conditions for transfer
4. Complications can occur, but they need to be accepted and explained to the patients.
5. Do a background check of the hospital, with hospitals mushrooming everythere, there is pressure on the owners to make money for their viability!
6. Check the doctors background and credentials. No doctor can get 100% satisfaction, however if the doctor/hospital has more negatives than positives (like this hospital where even my friends and well wishers were taken for a ride) avoid him/them.
In this era of technology, I believe a patient needs to be educated and there are resources to check. Never accept for an immediate surgery/admission until it is absolutely necessary. Never be carried away by words like Death, Life threathening complications etc., There are very few conditions in medicine which can cause death or complications if not treated immediately like brain trauma.
Hope this is an eye opener for my viewers and readers.
We were living in the UK for few years; our family includes me, my wife Padma), and our 7 yr old son and 8months old daughter. My wife had a symptom of ventral hernia (slightly bulged abdomen), we had consulted General Physician and Surgeon in the UK and advice was that she needed a surgery to have a mesh to fix the problem with a few weeks rest. We were also told that this is not an emergency and it can be done
anytime though earlier is good.
We were planning for Christmas vacation in India in Dec 2007, we thought we will consult some 'good' doctors over in India and take a decision of when we will do the surgery if required and possibly felt doing in India is good because of family support.
We landed in Chennai on 14th Dec 2007 for a three weeks vacation, met Dr in Chetput
We have explained him the background, shown him all the comments of UK surgeon, medical reports related to my wife pregnancy, deliveries, etc (she had delivered both our children normally). After few minutes of assessment Dr told us this hernia
requires laparoscopic surgery and we can do this next day itself. We were little concerned initially of getting this surgery done the very next day particularly we
were still not out of jet lag and she was feeding our baby) and got convinced with the 'salesy' words given by the Doctors. To quote a comment from the Doctor *"she will run in two days time and can lift two suitcases and you can return to UK as per your plan on 3rd Jan 2008"*). Also Dr told us that he will be on travel for 3 days from 17th Dec. Then my wife was put into all sorts of equipments in the hospital (in the name of assessment); blood, urine, ECG, MRI and so on and the tests were conducted till about 11pm on 15th Dec. In fact they have opened the labs after closing hours and got the test done and handed over the test results to us. Think of
it, we went our residence around midnight and my wife had rush on some food to keep compliance on the fasting 8 hrs prior to surgery. After preparing for the hospital visit that night and a couple of hours sleep (3 hrs or so) we reached (name deleted) hospital on 16th morning at 5am or so and from there we were transported by an 'ambulance' to Perungudi outskirts of Chennai).
In the meanwhile Dr returned from his travel and seen Padma on 19th evening along with other surgeons. He made an assessment and he told me that he might want to do one more laparoscopic surgery to find out what is the fluid about. He wanted to do a surgery on 20th Dec evening itself. On 20th Dec night, fluid started oozing from Padma's abdomen stitches, after the duty Doctor's assessment she was shifted to ICU. We really did not know what complication she developed in the ICU.
While I was discussing with the Doctors at ICU, the cashier in the hospital kept on calling me on my mobile. When I met the cashier he asked for Rs.60,000 to be paid immediately and I told him take Rs.40,000 and will give you the balance later in the day. Bang a reply came, "*you have to pay the money to for me to give clearance for surgery*". When I expressed my unhappiness about the comment, he insisted for me to sign a piece of paper saying that I will give the money later in the day. *(What
money minded, in-human attitude!)*
We have meet Dr at about 3:30pm on 21st Dec and understood that there was a *duodenum rupture* and he has fixed it, at the same time he removed the mesh which was fixed on 16th Dec. What we were puzzled were, how did the rupture happen? for that explanation given were - it could be due to ulcer. My wife had no evidence of
ulcer in the past.
On the same night (21st Dec) at about 930pm, I was called in to the ICU and Doctors conveyed that my wife condition is critical – her pulse is high, BP is low and they were attending to her. I insisted on talking to Dr immdly, but they refused to connect me to him at first and finally managed to speak to him. Dr came in around midnight and explained that the lungs are getting affected (shown X-ray of white patches on the lower portion of lungs) and she was the most serious patient in the whole hospital that time and they were trying their best. He also said, it will need
another 12-24 hours of observation before they can say anything.
At about 4:30am in the morning, my friend gained access the Doctors in the ICU and came out with the low face to tell me that Padma's condition is worsened. Again I tried to reach Dr and the hospital says they don't have his contact number (*just can't understand how they can behave like this). *Finally after some hue and cry came on line to tell me that he is not God and don't think his visit can do any thing different. I cried, begged him to come over to give some ideas to his team to recover Padma. He came over at around 6am and said they are trying everything
possible, etc; but her end came quickly. *
Teaching Points from the above
1. Never ever agree for immediate surgery if it is not an emergency. I do get patients wherein they are advised immediate surgery and I find no need for the same!
2. If the doctor is not accessible or could not be contacted, move to another.
3. If you feel you are not getting proper response or something fishy, move him/her to a different hospital after contacting the other hospital and explaining the conditions for transfer
4. Complications can occur, but they need to be accepted and explained to the patients.
5. Do a background check of the hospital, with hospitals mushrooming everythere, there is pressure on the owners to make money for their viability!
6. Check the doctors background and credentials. No doctor can get 100% satisfaction, however if the doctor/hospital has more negatives than positives (like this hospital where even my friends and well wishers were taken for a ride) avoid him/them.
In this era of technology, I believe a patient needs to be educated and there are resources to check. Never accept for an immediate surgery/admission until it is absolutely necessary. Never be carried away by words like Death, Life threathening complications etc., There are very few conditions in medicine which can cause death or complications if not treated immediately like brain trauma.
Hope this is an eye opener for my viewers and readers.
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