My brother met an accident in Chandigarh. He wasimmediately taken to PGI hospital. There all the necessary treatment was givento him. CT scan was done. At that time only my mother was with him. He had moderate head injury. My mother took asecond opinion from a private neurosurgeon, Dr. Deepak Tyagi of NINS hospital, Chandigarh. He convinced her to shift him toa private hospital, IVYHospital in Mohali. As itwas getting late and all the treatment has been given at the PGI, my motherdecided to shift him thinking that he might get a more comfortable bed at aprivate hospital.
There he was immediately taken inside ICU. My family wasn’t allowed tovisit him. Dr. Tyagi hardly spent a few minutes in the ICU and was in a hurryto go home. He just told my mother that instructions have been given to theother staff. The next day he told my mother that he has been put on ventilatorand would be kept so for three more days and then discharged. He also gave mymother full assurances that he is perfectly all right and won’t need anysurgery.
Itwas later through the reports that we came to know, that on the earlier nightother than being put on ventilator he was also intubated(a medical procedurein which a tube is put inside the patient’s mouth and goes up to the lungs). Wewere never told about it.
. Apparently the assurances were made and patient intubated so that we won’t shift him. As thevery next morning Dr. Tyagi came and announced that he would require a life savingsurgery. On our insistence that we wanted to take him some place else hw warnedas that we have only 15 minutes to give permission, else something unfortunatemight happen.
Myfamily reluctantly gave them permission for an open head surgery. Somethingwhich could have been avoided had the doctors been a little more diligent incarrying out their duty. Even though doctor had given us 15 minutes to respond ittook around 3 hours for them to actuallystart the surgery. It seemed it was their trick to force us into giving thempermission, so that my family won’t be able to shift him to a better hospitalfor the surgery.
Forthe next few days my brother was in a good condition, responding to us. Heused to communicate with us by pressing our hands. Sometimes he used to getvery agitated. It was later told to us that this normally happens when tube isput inside fully conscious patient. It is very difficult to tolerate a tubeinside your throat when you are awake. On the other hand doctors kept tellingus that he is not conscious and just acting on reflexes. His hands were tied tothe bed without informing us or without taking our permission. It was another story that later on hen weread the reports, on that very day when Dr. Tyagi tried to convince us that heis not fully conscious, he has written in the reports that the patient haspurposeful movement.
For the next few days he was put on heavy sedation, and we weren’t beingbriefed very well by the doctors. Since it was not advisable to shift him tosome different hospital we tried getting some outside doctor. The permissionfor the same was bluntly turned down by the hospital. During this time we werealso very careful not to offend the staff as my brother was under their care.
They continued to keep my brother like this for 5 days, just to inflatethe bills. At this time one of the doctors wrote in his reports about theemotional support for the patient. It is surprising that at one time they weretrying to convince us that he is not awake and on the other hand this doctorhad written for emotional support for the patient. Suddenly on the sixth dayfrom operation and eight days after injury, he suddenly suffered a cardiacarrest. At that time there was a youngdoctor on duty, Dr. Vikas Raghove. He told me that it was a reaction to drugoverdose. Later, ofcourse he retracted his statement and told us that he has never said so. That night we pleadedthe hospital staff for the cardiologist but they never relented to ourrequests. We asked them to get a cardiologist from a neighbouring hospital andtold them that we were ready to bear the cost. But no result, they just kept telling us that he would be coming in 15minutes/ 30 mins. But he never came. Thatnight without any explanation 4 units of blood were given to my brother.
Tothis day no explanation for the sudden cardiac arrest to a 26 year old guy, were given to us. At that time he wasbrain dead and was declared so in the reports two days later. This fact howeverwas never disclosed to us. Moreover toincrease the bill amount he was given physiotherapy even though doctors havedeclared him brain dead.
Finally on the third day he was declareddead. At this point after paying the bills we asked for the complete medicalrecords, but instead few lab reports were handed over to us.
On the fourth day, after the unfortunatedemise of my brother we were handed over the incomplete records after a fullday fight with the doctors and the administration. The 80 or so photocopieswere handed over to us at around midnight even though we had made a request inthe morning at around 10 AM.
IVY hospital is not only responsible forthe death of my brother as they kept giving him unnecessary treatment just toinflate the bills. They were also highly insensitive in dealing with usafter his death and tried to hide their misdeeds by avoiding giving us anyrecords