[Resolved]  Apollo Hospital — medical negligence during treatment

Address:

Bhubaneswar

Myself, being a very senior doctor, i would like to share my experience as an attendant of a patient (My wife, also a very senior doctor) at apollo hospital, bhubaneswar. I went from sambalpur and reached at apollo in the evening of 17th march, 2020 after she had symptoms of cad and getting treatment from local cardiologist. She was admitted to icu under the senior most cardiologist of apollo. The next day in the evening 6 pm she was taken for angiography but came out of cath lab around 12: 30 am after angioplasty. After my wife's angiography, angioplasty was done after two other cases. The person had to stay in cath lab for 6 1/2 hrs. Before angioplasty she could sleep well in lying position. After the intervention she was comfortable only in sitting position. After 4 days she was shifted to cabin. She was shifted back to icu after two ays again as she had malaena (Black stool). Her haemoglobin came down. Endoscopy was done twice to reveal minimal problem not enough to determine cause of lowering of haemoglobin. She had mild pulmonary hypertension and mild some other heart problems previously. I was told that those problems have severed by then. I was astonished to hear that the treating doctor was unable to know why the haemoglobin was coming down. There were some more senior cardiologist (Atleast two). None of them were consulted. Hemoglobin was stabilized to 7.5 after seven bottles of blood transfusion. She was shifted to general cabin after 5 days in icu. By then she had already developed generalized edema and pleural effusion along with breathing problem. She was discharged on 30th march, 2020 night with an advice for check up after 1 month. Even after tking all the medications and advices, herrespiratory distress and edema didn't subside. We brought her to apollo again on 15th april, 2020. She developed severe respiratory distress at the hospital prior to admission as there were corona fighters who didn't take her into account for her bad condition (Even after showing all the records). She was not provided oxygen on time which detoriated her condition. She was finally admitted again to icu in critical condition after the investigating cardiologist intervened. Corona swab test was also done which came out to be negative. Two bottles of blood and five days of stay did nothing to keep her alive and she left us on 20th april, 2020.
During the second phase of stay, the nephrologist didn' t come even till the 3rd day (A resident doctor of the same department was available). 9 litres of fluid was removed from my wife's body by dialysis even though the renal functionality were normal. The consulting doctor didn't have any fixed time for visiting the patient. The doctor didn't have time to take into confidence neither the patient nor the attendant. The doctors there in general donot have humanity, sentiments and emotions. They are mean minded indulged in financial gain only and extremely egoistic. Egoistic in the sense that they are reluctant to even consult senior doctors or specialist if there is something that they themselves cannot decipher.
Both myself and dmy wife have served at village level and district level for more than 30 years in government sector. We know what a doctor means to a patient. One thing i must say in lay man terms, the patient was brought in a good condition (Apparently) which worsened after treatment and couldn't be revived due to complications. There should be more experienced nursing staff atleast in the icu. The fooding service of patient and attendant is probably the worst. Food is being served in plastic trays which is most repelling. The behaviour of security guards is unbearable. They don't have humanity even after patient expires.

If my experience is such, i don't know what might be happening with the general people.

Dr. N. K. Mishra,
Retd. Dhs (Odisha)