This evening the Asianet News had aired their investigation on doctors’ private practice. The doctors of various Medical Colleges in Kerala are engaged in private practice even though they are banned from it. While watching the news two incidents came to mind. One was a bitter experience and the other a good one.
The first incident was that my mother had to undergo. My Mum used to get severe stomach pains. She was under the treatment of a doctor in a private hospital. Every time she suffered from pain she would be admitted and be there for a week. She would be discharged and the next month she gets admitted again. Once she got a very bad pain that she had to be rushed to the hospital in the late hours at night. Her doctor was not there and it was a junior doctor who attended her at the casualty. She was a very young doctor. She examined Mum and said,
“Ammakku hernia aanu. Oru surgery vendi varum.” [“Mother, you are suffering from hernia. You need a surgery”]
For so many months mum wasn’t told what she was suffering from and we were kept ignorant of that fact. I advised mum to seek a second opinion from some other doctor before she decided on surgery.
Mum went to Medical College in Trivandrum and she met a doctor there. As my mum is suffering from rheumatoid arthritis she always uses a walking stick. The doctor told mum that she needed a surgery and she had to get admitted the next time she got a pain. Then he wanted to know if her children were in the US as she was carrying a walking stick (as though nobody else carries one?????).
After two weeks again she had another bout of pain and she was admitted to the Medical College Hospital casualty. The condition of the casualty was deplorable. The cot on which she was lying was ”physically handicapped”. Above that she had to share her bed with another patient. (My Mum’s “cleanliness” was all gone in no time.)I could see the sign of irritation and disgust on mum's face. I spent a sleepless night sitting on a chair with mosquito bites and screams and wails of patients and by standers. Next morning I managed to get a room for her in the deluxe pay ward. Her doctor came, examined her and told her that she needed the surgery as soon as possible. She had to get herself scanned. After all the results the doctor never came back. It was the house surgeons who came to examine her. She was there for over two weeks. One sweeper informed us that we had to pay a bribe and only then Mum would be operated upon.
I asked her how much should I pay and her reply was,
“Athu oru 20 roopa enkilum kodukanam.” (You will have to pay at least Rs 20).
Here Rs. 20 meant Rs. 20,000. It seems we should go to the doctor’s house and give him the money. She also added that only if we gave the money would he come and examine her again.
I asked mum what was her opinion was. She totally disagreed and told me that I had to inform the vigilance if I was intending to pay him the bribe. Believe me, for one month she lay in the hospital without a surgery. Finally she was operated upon without paying a bribe. She was the last patient to be operated that day.
After the operation she was in the post operative ward. The post operative ward was filthy. There were two buckets under mum’s bed with some kind of dirt. A cat and its kittens freely roamed around the post operative ward. I can understand why people get infection in the government hospitals. It is best not to talk about the toilets there. Every time I wanted to use the toilet I would go to our room.
Two days later another we realized that her hernia was still there. A house surgeon gave me a pathetic look when I informed him about that. Anyway mum was discharged from the hospital after 42 days’ stay. My first reaction was to sue the doctor for his irresponsibility. Then I thought he would operate her again and her life would be at risk. A year later she had to undergo another surgery for hernia and two other surgeries in another hospital and had to shell out more than a hundred thousand of rupees.
The next incident….. My father was admitted to Medical College Hospital for an emergency surgery. He was suffering from ulcer which went undiagnosed for years. His health was already failing and the surgery was an urgent one. His diabetes was very high and he couldn’t be operated upon. Dad is a person who cannot control his diet. Even during his stay in the hospital he would go out to the hotels to eat without the hospital staff seeing him. As his operation was delaying my aunt (Dad’s sister) told mum that the doctors were delaying the operation on purpose for bribe. Mum believing her went with some money to the doctor’s house. The doctor fired Mum. He said that there was no use in paying him a bribe because he wouldn’t operate a patient when he was not fit for it. Mum said that she was ashamed at the way the doctor scolded her. Anyway she learnt a lesson that doctors were not to be bribed. Guess that is why she did not want to pay a bribe for her own operation!!!
These two incidents came to mind. There are a very few good doctors with ethics while a vast majority of them are unethical. The doctors take the Hippocratic oath
“I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:
To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.
But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.
I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.
All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.
If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.” [Coutesy Wikipedia ]
How many doctors truly follow the oath they have taken at the time of convocation??? A good doctor is a person who has a true passion for his profession. When money and other worldly goods becomes their top priority, it is quite natural for them to forget their ethics. Haven’t we come across doctors who prescribe medicines of certain companies????? Haven’t we heard about doctors who send their patients for scans and other tests unnecessarily????? If that doctor who operated mum had the slightest ethic he couldn’t have cut open mum’s stomach if he did not have any intention of removing her hernia. I know hernia recurs even if it is operated upon but recurrence in a couple of days is strange!!! My mum could afford to pay the bribe but can all the people who goes to the hospital afford to pay a big sum like this????? I have seen the rudeness meted out to patients by this hospital at their maternity wards. I beg you doctors to be more humane with your patients. Money is not the ultimate end. The love shown by patients, the respect that they give and the gratitude that they show you brings much more happiness than what money can buy!!!!
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