My father underwent open heart surgery/CABG at Aster Medcity on the 22nd of January 2024 and was there till 3rd of April, he is in a coma since 24th of January(nearly 5 months) caused solely by gross negligence of Aster Medcity.
He is fighting to get back his consciousness from a state of minimum awareness, he cannot speak, move his hands or legs at will, cannot control the movement of his eyes, and is fully dependent on doctors, nurses and family for his survival.
Post surgery, my father was moved to one of their ICUs which they call as CTVS, on the morning of 24th of January we were informed that he’s recovering but is disoriented, I was allowed to be by his side on the 24th of January late afternoon where I found him to be speaking constantly, his statements were disconnected from reality, I was told by doctors at Aster Medcity that this is a common occurrence with patients undergoing such surgeries and that he will be moved to another ICU more relatable to a normal room which might help in getting him out of the disoriented state. Late evening on the same day he was moved to what they call MICU, things became worst there.
Their discharge summary says and I quote " patient was shifted to CTVS ICU and was extubated after CPAP trial and reversal, put on BIPAP, patient was delined and shifted to MICU. He had ICU Psychosis at the time of shifting. On arrival to MICU, he became restless and stood up at which point he arrested and collapsed on the bed with uprolling of eyes, 15 minute CPR with 2 shocks and 3 adrenaline boluses given and ROSC was achieved. " the most disturbing aspect of this is
1. My father was on an electrically operated hospital bed with side locks, the ones that prevent patients from falling out and requires to be unlocked physically to be able to move out of it.
2. As mentioned in the discharge summary he was under assisted breathing i.e. ventilator support / BIPAP.
3. Apart from the BIPAP he had many other tubes and cables attached.
His being able to stand up on his own after moving all of these hindrances is unimaginable. I was assured multiple times that there was a nurse present in the room at all times. What was the nurse doing all this time while he went through all the steps needed to stand up? Or was his bed left open? in which case it would have been easier surely.
The fact that the discharge summary states the’patient stood up’ is shifting the responsibility and passing the blame, Aster Medcity as the care provider is responsible to ensure the patient’s safety and prevent a disoriented patient from self harm, if at all that was the case, and they failed due to their gross negligence and did not ensure necessary preventive measures.
As a family we continue to live traumatically with the aftermath of this event, caused by Aster’s gross negligence and flawed practices, not to mention the financial drain, we paid Aster Medcity a total of close to INR 28 lacs in a span of little over 2 months(70 days approximately). Furthermore, my father suffered due to various other instances occurring due to lack of proper communication between their doctors, teams and staff.
Aster Medcity is part of Aster DM, publicly listed, thereby focused more on increasing revenue and ultimately maintaining price of it’s shares than genuine care.
A grievance email written to their chairman seeking intervention went unacknowledged.
Posting this under positive reviews with 5 stars to ensure it shows up and is visible to more people. Their Google review rating is consistently 4.7 as it’s well doctored.
If you type’cardiac surgery Kerala’ on Google, Aster’s paid ad shows up stating best cardiac surgeons in Kochi, this is an example of their focus to boost business growth.