What is better way to review a product / thing's capability apart from experiencing it personally and see.
Here is my horror story of my mother's health ruined by Malar Hospital. I am giving direct references only to prove the authenticity. It doesn't mean that only these 'names' are culprit...
My mother was admitted to Malar Hospital with a complaint of stomach pain on 5th June 2002. She is 62 and is a diabetic. The physician was one Dr.V. Jeenadas. Otherwise healthy and active.
She was diagnosed of a gall-stone. She was operated on laproscopy on 8th June 2002 by Dr. Kannan. We were told that the operation will require one or maximum two days post-recovery.
After operation, She developed severe chest / heart pain. She was kept in post-operative ward itself for two days.
After that, she was in-patient till 17th June 2002. That is for ten more days in the operation. Her stomach pain INCREASED after operation. Doctor had attached a tube in her stomach for a secretion which was significant.
She was given innumerable medicines and taken many scans.
After ten days, Doctors told that the pain will vanish if the wounds heal automatically. She was discharged on 17th June with pain in the stomach. In a worse situation than her admission. The bill was for Rs.85,000 (after much bargaining).
Please wait, as the story does not end here...
Her stomach pain slowly increased day by day. By 23rd She was in continuous pain. Her stomach kept swelling. We went again to the hospital on 24th June evening 6.30 pm. Dr. Jeenadas saw and said that the issue is post-surgical and Dr. Kannan has to see. Dr. Kannan was summoned and he said he needs to do a ultrasound scan.
The ultra-sound scan room was closed post 7 pm. The doctor said please get admitted and we will take tomorrow. We had to shout and call for scan immediately. The scanning doctor was in Devaki Hospital and came at 8 pm. and did the scan.
After the scan, the scanning doctor (one Dr. Jeyaraj) said that there seems to be some fluid collection or some bowel tieing. He said the ultrasound scan will not show everything. This was the fifth / sixth scan after operation and we were surprised when suddenly he said
something is there...
For further diagnostic, He prescribed CT Scan. We were told (by one Dr. Elango, assistant to Dr. Jeenadas) that the CT scan can be done in the morning only. He said he will come at 8 am and arrange it.
We were allowed to be admitted as in-house patinet by paying Rs.10,000 as advance. Next day morning came and there were no sign of any doctor till 10 am. The nurse said she has no instruction on any treatment.
We made many noice and Dr. Kannan was summoned by 12 noon. He arranged CT scan by 3 pm. Please mind that the patient is suffering and this is the second day for them to even take preliminary diagnosis.
After CT scan (costing Rs.6,000), The scanning doctor told that there is fluid formation and Dr. Kannan will be informed. Dr. Kannan came in the evening and told that he will do another operation to remove the fluid. This time by cutting opening the stomach.
She was operated on 26th June again. Post-Operation she was attached a tube where the fluid kept coming in. She was now having pain because of the wounds having a friction with a plastic tube.
To cut further long story short, She was kept in the hospital till 4th July. Totally 10 days. Till her discharge from the hospital, The fluid secretion is not stopped and she was having fever almost daily. She was given heavy antibiotic. Dr. Kannan said there were
some complications from the first operation and there is a small rent / hole on the intestine and the bladder.
After discharge, We were told to come for bandage for each week. We were told by Dr. Kannan that the wounds will heal by itself in one week or two. The bill this time was for Rs.65,000.
The discharge / secretion and her suffering did not stop till 14th July. After ten days after her discharge from hospital also.
We were worried and our friends advised second opinion. With the pressure we went to The Chief Gastro specialist Dr. Subramaniam at Guest Hospital, Chennai. He took x-rays and also put injection in the attached tube to check the leak passage. He diagnosed that the secretion is nothing but fecal (which is toilet material) and the rent is in intestine. He wants to put gastronomic injection / enema
to do further tests.
But, he says she has to be admitted again in a hospital. He says that the secretion will not stop unless we dry out the intestine to allow it to heal. He says there is a severe possibility of infection or further holes in other intestine, if we do not do one more operation. He wants to put another tube (temporary gastronomy) to make the fecal material outside.
Dr. Subramaniam also said this complication is due to error in operation. But, he says first concentrate on her recovery...
We are worried and much depressed. There is a tragedy feeling in the family.
When we consulted lawyer and friends for a possible remedy and a solution, I was surprised at the number of such cases and unhappy patients suffering silently. The lawyers also scorn at this and say that this is a major problem and can't be easily resolved...
The advice from the professional consumer advocates is as follows...
If you want to file a case , please collect all informations / documents first without giving any indication to the hospital that you are going to
file a case.
1.Please write down and keep what ever you remember.. on a daily basis.
2.Preserve all prescriptions / medical bills.
3.Collect all reports.. of scanning and any other tests.
4.See if you can get the case sheet .. copy it and keep it with you.. they normally dont give this.. youneed to steal .. or bribe somebody to get this. Case sheet is very very important since they will have written everything in
this.
Once you are confident that you have all these , approach a lawer . Till you have everything with you , dont give any indication that you are going to file a case. This will give them an opprtunity to get prepared... you must
catch them unawares !
