I don’t have any intention to defame all the doctors working at Tata Medical Centre Kolkata. I am sure there are many good doctors there. This review is going to be complete description of actual turn of events that me and my family went through. This is quite long but if this helps even a single person, we will feel good.
My father was diagnosed with lungs cancer based on a HRCT scan of his chest and did not have a lot of symptoms except infrequent coughs. We decided to take him to Tata Medical Centre Kolkata. I got the appointment after I sent all the diagnostic report to the appointment desk and they allocated Dr. Tapesh Bhattacharya for my father’s treatment randomly. I checked his CV. His experience and research interests seemed to be aligned with the type of cancer my father had. We met him first on 4th April, 2024. He ordered a bunch of tests. We did them asap. He also referred us to Dr. Robin Thombudorai for consultation on feasibility of a surgery. Dr. Robin declared my father’s quality of life may hamper significantly after surgery and it may involve a lot of risk because of his age. He was 71. So, we went back to Dr. Tapesh and he suggested chemo + radiation followed by immunotherapy for maintenance. I was sceptical of chemo because of its notorious side effects. I asked him if this is going to be safe for my father. His response was, ’ What are you afraid of? Mostly people have nausea, fatigue etc. We have medicines for that. Yes, in the long term it may impact his organs but it will still give him a few years to live. If you don’t do this treatment, the cancer will progress fast.’ He never mentioned the possibility of infection resulting from chemo or any other risk factors associated with it. He again ordered a few blood tests to check his ability to take chemo. I took the reports and met him on 8th April and most of his reports including White Blood Cell count, creatinine, urea etc. were totally fine. He gave a green signal to start the chemo. He prescribed a few medicine that my father needs to take before/ after chemo e.g. steroids, anti- nausea medicine and one injection to be taken after 24 hours of chemo. This injection is given to increase white blood cells after chemo as chemo may reduce WBC. However, even on that day, he never mentioned on which day my father’s chances of getting infection will be high, what should be warning signs to understand if he got an infection. In fact he told me that he may have fever, give him paracetamol. That’s it. My father took the chemo in the evening of 8th. He was fine on 9th and 10th. Since 11th morning he had this fever around 100-101. We gave him paracetamol. He was also not being able to get up from the bed. We were still not worried as we thought these are usually symptoms. Since evening I noticed his heart rate increased and his SPO2 level was 92 something. I was worried. He was not being able to eat anything as well. I already gave him 2 paracetamols. I emailed Dr. Tapesh. He again mentioned, give him 3 paracetamols, if his fever doesn’t go down then take him to the ER. I didn’t waste time. I took him to the emergency of TMC hoping they would be able to take prompt action. I was so wrong.
First of all the ER nurses and housekeeping staffs were ill mannered and incapable of taking care of patients. They were irritated for the fact that my father was so weak he wasn’t being able to move his body on his own! No doctor came to see him until we begged them to come and see. The doctors and nurses were cracking jokes amongst themselves. They didn’t even put an oxygen mask on him even when he was having shortness of breath. The emergency doctor seemed clueless. He ordered a few blood tests and chest x-ray. The blood tests revealed he had severely low WBC and the condition is neutropenia which makes him prone to infection. They decided to admit him in the private ward after 4.5 hours we took him to emergency and till then they didn’t give him an oxygen mask. In the private ward, Dr tapesh’s junior team member came to visit him and surprisingly till then they didn’t tell us anything to worry about. Although we could sense something is wrong. My father was not being able to complete a sentence clearly at that point. At 9.30 am on 12th in front of me he had a heart attack Till then no senior doctor visited him. The nurses and the visiting doctor told me that they need to intubate him immediately otherwise they will not be able to save him. I gave them the consent and that was the last time I saw him in his senses.
On 19th morning he left us. ICU doctors told us he had neutropenic sepsis. All his major organs failed one by one. Everyday a different doctor used to come and tell us his body is not responding to any of the medicines. Dr. Tapesh came to see him on Wednesday (15th) and he was admitted from 11th night. I mailed him begging for his consultation (he didn’t give me his number) and he said he is on leave and ’post chemo complications are common’. My question is then why I wasn’t informed and warned adequately about this ’so common complications’? Why was I misguided to give him 3 paracetamols even after mailing him clearly that his fever is not going down and heart rate is 110 with 92 SPO2?
As an experienced doctor, why didn’t he tell me to take him to the hospital and guided his junior to visit my father immediately? Where is the accountability? They wasted precious hours(9-10 hours) and let the sepsis progress. My 1 week stay at the hospital revealed many nasty glaring negligences from the hospital which need to rectified immediately.
I don’t know who is responsible for taking a life who could easily live another happy and fulfilling year with his family - The unempathetic and reluctant nurses? The cruel, untrained housekeeping staffs? The ’clueless about chemo side effects ’ yet ’working in a cancer hospital’ junior doctors? Or the actual senior treating doctor who simply followed a formula fits for all approach and didn’t even bother to personalize his treatment plan for a 71 year old man to give him a chance at life?
If you are still reading this, I would urge you to talk to multiple patients and their experiences with the treating doctor before choosing a doctor. All cancers are different and not all treatments suit everybody. So, ask as many questions as you need and take multiple opinions before deciding on a treatment. Most of the time it is not the cancer that takes life, it is the side effects of the treatments. I saw multiple patients at the ICU at TMC between the period 12-19 th May. All of them had similar symptoms like pneumonia, infections after chemo and none of them made it. So, please choose the doctor who is wiling to fight with you for your loved one’s life and not someone who will tell you ’he is 71 years old with lungs cancer, he anyway didn’t have time’. I still believe in medical science and I still believe there are doctors who spend sleepless nights to care for their patients.