My maternal Uncle was in coma in his death bed. The doctor(Dr Mahesh Goenka) visited and I asked “Is there any hope left?”
He gave me a sarcastic smile and said“I have never seen a miracle in my life but why don’t you try taking him to your favourite Hyderabad hospital and see if they can give him some new fresh liver? If here, today is his last day. Too bad that you have none but me”
Few months back, we had admitted him to the infamous Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata after he had stomach pain for sometime. The hospital refused to admit him since it was a minor pain and if nothing came out of it, they would have trouble getting insurance claims settled. My mother forced them to admit him and run all tests. It was found on the third day that he had terminal Liver cancer(HCC).
Immediately, we decided to shift him to the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Hyderabad with hope for better treatment. DR Goenka, in Apollo Hospital was reluctant to discharge him but we wanted him to get the best treatment available in India.
Back from Hyderabad, we knew that his days were numbered.
4 months later, in Kolkata, it was an emergency situation and we made the mistake of admitting him again to the Apollo Hospital and unfortunately, under the same doctor Dr. Mahesh Goenka. As soon as he saw us, he was furious.
On day 1, he said his grieving wife*“What miracle did the Hyderabad hospital show? See, you had to come back to me only at the end! This is why you should never disobey your doctor. Now you have to depend on me only”
We all understood how wrong our decision was, to go back to the same hospital.
For the next few days, he was in the ICU. The saline channel was in his left hand and was not changed once in the 4 days. His left hand, thus was swollen heavily. His other hand and both legs were tied with the bed stand for the next 4 days. There was blood oozing out from both of his eyes, as long as he was awake( for 3 days) and nobody cared to treat his eyes, since he was dying anyway.
His limbs were tied during the entire period and not for once, did they open them to let some blood circulation. His limbs were swollen as well.
Each and every meeting with the doctor was tremendously rude, full of arrogance and sarcasm. He was so happy at our pain. I can’t forget the sadist smile at the corner of his lips.
Months later, he was found guilty of medical negligence while treating a baby. The baby died.
WBCERC finds Apollo Gleneagles Hosp guilty of med negligence(https://outlookindia.com/newsscroll/wbcerc-finds-apollo-gleneagles-hosp-guilty-of-med-negligence/1083208)