Mar 10, 2011 03:48 PM
8578 Views
(Updated Mar 10, 2011 04:29 PM)
I would like to highlight poor & non-responsive medical services in National Capital. I had taken my mother aged 65 years to Sri Action Balaji Hospital, Paschim Vihar, advertised to be a reputed hospital in West Delhi with all modern facilities, for getting operated on her Rt. Kidney to remove renal stones.
After several tests conducted on her a procedure “PCNL Surgery with DG Stents” was done on 19.02.2011 At the time of her discharge from OT at around 13.00 hrs she was having acute shivering and pain with nausea and this continued for about 2-3 hrs.
Later in the evening she complained of acute pain in her Rt. wrist with numbness in hand and uneasiness combined with pain on the operated area. As the pain became unbearable, the matter was reported to the duty nurse and assurance was given that the doctor will come and see patient very soon. Repeated calls from the Nurse to the Urologist were not answered by the Doctor and ultimately the nurse shown her helplessness to call the Doctor. Insensitive attitude of the treating Doctor made us suspicious and we insisted for the need of immediate medical attention as her condition was serious.
On persistent queries a general duty doctor came around 2200 hrs and after examining the patient said he will not prescribe any medicine to the patient without the instructions from the Urologist.
In the whole episode it is quite evident that doctors left the patient, operated few hours before on the vital organ like The Kidney, without ensuring that the patient remains under full medical attention till her condition stabilizes. Her ordeal lasted for more than12 hrs in this reputed hospital in Delhi. The duty Nurses administered some injections and medicines, perhaps under the directions of the Urologist/ other Doctors. These may be sedatives since after administration of the injection she slept after 2330 hrs.
In the morning when we enquired from the patient how she is feeling she replied there is no pain in the right arm but she was unable to move her left arm. We were shocked at that moment but still we felt that this might be a temporary problem and will be cured soon. However, when even after 2-3 hrs she was still not able to move her wrist, we reported the matter to duty nurse and the Doctors over the nursing station. Since the matter was too serious we stressed the need to meet the Urologist.
The Urologist came to see the patient only in the afternoon of 20.02.2011. He took the whole matter in a very casual manner and tried to save his skin saying, there was no lapse on his part as his surgery was OK. A layman like me also knows that the operation is not a single Doctor’s job but is a team work and all the team members are equally responsible, for any wrong. The numbness in the limbs in the instant case may be due to procedural lapse on part of the Urologist or due to wrong anesthesia.
The Urologist was neither polite nor shown any courtesy to console us. When we put pressure on him to know the exact cause of this problem only then he referred the patient to a Neuro physician. When we complained about the whole matter to the Dy. MS, he assured us to conduct an enquiry into the matter and would discharge my mother only when she is able to take care of her day to day needs by herself. I broke into tears when the panel of doctors said, we are not aware why and how this happened to your mother and what they could do was only apologize. Will they please answer, if their apologies could bring back her lost limb movement or could get her back to normal life which she was used to Since the problem was diagnosed to be attributable to the treating Doctors. She remained in the hospital getting physiotherapy under the observation of a Neuro-physician till 5th March 2011. The progress is too slow and we are told it might take few months to regain lost strength in the limb. Even Doctors are not sure about the 100% recovery of the patient. Had my mother got timely medical attention post surgery, situation would have never been that worse.
The Dy. MS now backtracking on his assurance discharged our patient and advised us to get her physiotherapy done at home. When I asked about the assurance given by the panel of doctors, he said you keep a nurse at home to take care of your mother.We really became a prey to this hospital and the loss we suffered is almost irreparable. I cannot express in words the mental trauma we are going through after seeing the condition of our patient as the events were totally unexpected and at the same time were not getting any moral support from the concerned Doctor. Even at the time of discharge they manipulated with the discharge summary and when we requested for the day to day case history the AMS of the hospital behaved very rudely with the family.
The doctors are quite rude and repulsive in nature though nowadays so many training & seminars are held for improving doctor-patient relationship. They neither have regards to the Hippocratic Oath nor any ethics or the morality. The big Pvt hospitals in Delhi have only become business houses with doctors as their salesman.The haste with which the surgeon had left the OT and was not receiving of SOS calls definitely requires intervention by the Hospital as well as the Ministry of Health Govt of NCT of Delhi.
