Moushumi Chakraborty recounts how medical negligence in Shillong almost killed her mother
PARENTS ARE God’s most precious gifts to children. But how do you describe the pain, fear, anguish and helplessness that some children go through when they see their loved ones struggling with excruciating pain every single day especially because of incompetence of certain doctors (read quacks)?
Here is a story of my mother’s struggle all because of an inefficient and incapable doctor. My mother took a fall in the year 2010 and had multiple fractures in her leg. We rushed her for medical emergency and an orthopedic doctor claiming to be capable did a surgery on her and wherein he put a plate and screws to bring back her broken bones to order. All seemed well till this time and we put our faith in the doctor thinking he knew what he had done and my mother would be on the road to recovery. But our sense of relief was short-lived for the day her cast was being taken off, this doctor while removing her plaster at home also in the process cut off her skin! And she bled. He did blush a bit for his clumsy job and quickly took a piece of cotton and tied a bandage over the wound.
But after a few days my mother complained of pain and when we removed that temporary bandage he had tied, found the wound festering to the extent of the inserted plate seeming to be visible because of the open wound! When this was reported to him he called her to his hospital where he without any anesthesia and to her cries of pain put a few stitches and sent her back home. Was this gross shabby job the beginning of her infection in the leg we now wonder!
Since 2010 my mom was totally bedridden and her leg continued to trouble her and instead of it healing showed several signs of infection time and time again. Emergency calls to the same doctor would go unanswered and promises of him coming over for checkups went unfulfilled and my mother continued to wait for his visits and suffer in the process and remained unattended. A few names of medicines suggested quickly over the phone that too after several days of calls was all that he did and the wound seemed apparently to dry with the intake of these medicines. But isn’t a doctor by his or her oath supposed to attend to SOS calls and care for a patient’s sufferings?
This on and off problems with my mother’s leg continued for well over four years but when once again two weeks ago the same leg stated to pus, bleed, swell with intense pain we WhatsApped him the pictures of her current state. Not once did he care to attend to her and our calls of alarm and we decided that enough was enough. To put her into safer hands we contacted an orthopedic surgeon in Bangalore where my elder sister lives and WhatsApped him the pictures of her leg. He immediately put her into antibiotics and suggested that her plate and screws needed urgent removal lest the infection reaches the bones.
We transferred her to Bangalore. Fear is the most imminent emotion that one goes through when told of huge medical complications and especially so when it’s the well-being of your loved ones. In this case this is my loving mom who was always like a rock of Gibraltar in our lives! Her bedridden state for the last several years, as she could not walk at all since the fall in 2010 also impaired her spine and doctors in Bangalore further suggested the critical necessity of surgery in her three discs as well which could otherwise lead to paralysis in the near future!
Thankfully at age 70, she could withstand nine hours of surgery both in her discs and leg though as feared, the orthopedic surgeon on surgery found infection that had reached up to her bone. Could this deterioration not have been avoided? I dare say an emphatic yes! If only her previous doctor to whom we reposed our trust had taken her condition seriously and had suggested for the removal of her plate at an earlier stage. Why he did not in spite of being told of her repeated infection is a question that can best be answered by him alone. Was it lack of understanding of her medical deterioration or his acumen to medical science? Thankfully my mother who is an epitome of inner will and mental strength underwent the two surgeries and is now slowly on the road to recovery. Thank God for his mercy!
Medical negligence and the pitfalls of wrong diagnosis and the perils of wrong treatment is not something alien in our country and this isn’t an isolated case either. Very often it also ends up at the costs of precious lives of innocent patients who put their lives into the hands of inept doctors. In a country where murders, rapes and crimes goes unreported such and more heinous medical neglect too goes unreported with doctors in such cases refusing to take the onus of their responsibility.
But the question that now arises is, are we supposed to remain mute spectators and bystanders to acts of medical laxity and lack of medical ethics? Is there no way we stop such ‘quacks’ performing quackery with their half baked skills and medical knowledge? Is it not time to revamp and give more teeth to the archaic Medical Council Act of 1956 and constitute a medical tribunal which will help in conducting thorough inquiries into alleged cases of medical negligence? Perhaps it is time to set the records straight in this area too.