| Address: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 380052 |
My mother was admitted in sterling hospital ahmadabad for an operation. After few days of the operation, she had complained of pain at the site of the stitches. Later on the treating doctor told us that she needs to be taken to higher center for further treatment as they were not able to cure her. They asked us to take my mother to a specified hospital at mumbai. They asked us to discharge her from the hospital as soon as possible. The doctors said she needs to be taken in an ambulance fitted with ventilator and other support system. They also assured us to send along an anesthetist md doctor along to attend to my mother as and when the need arises during
Transit. We decided to take her to mumbai right away and paid the bill amount and did all formalities. Time was 10 pm. As promised by them we waited for the equipped ambulance and the md doctor to arrive. But despite repeated requests and calls, the hospital management (One mr. Akshay killedar) did not respond positively and talked very rudely. We had a feeling that we were left unattended as soon as we had paid the bill. We tried desperately to call here and there to request for an ambulance and the doctor. At around 2:30 am, one of the hospital staff (One mr. Mehul) told us that they have managed to arrange an mbbs doctor only, who was not good at administering anesthesia. Since the route from ahmedabad to mumbai is quite long, a doctor who is not good at doing what he is supposed to do, is only a liability and may jeopardize the health of the critically ill patient by administering wrong treatment. And more so, before we had paid the bill, the hospital doctors themselves had told us that we would be needing an md doctor to accompany the patient in the ambulance. So we waited and waited. At around 3:30 am, we were told that they have managed to get hold of a private anesthetist doctor (Dr. Vinod) and an ambulance guy who will charge 55000 rs. We had no option but to say yes. Even after agreeing to pay the extra money, the ambulance and doctor did not turn up until 4:30 am. When finally both of them arrived they asked to be paid the money first before even starting the ignition of the vehicle. So we paid the money and we began the journey. Mother was conscious and health parameters were stable at this time. Just after sometime, dr. Vinod and the ambulance guy had a quarrel over the route to be taken. And to our horror, we found out that the ambulance did not have cooling system and so the window was kept open. My critically ill mother had to breath pollution and dust all the way through mumbai.in the route, mother started to faint which was brought to the doctor's notice who assessed that she is just fine and does not need any intervention. And the very point of starting early in the night from ahmadabad was to enter mumbai early before the heavy traffic rush begins. But
Since the hospital was careless in arranging the ambulance, we could start late at 4:30 am and we entered mumbai at 12:00 noon. But after entering mumbai, due to traffic, we could reach the hospital only at 2:30 pm. As soon as we reached the mumbai hospital, the doctors there saw my mother and they assessed that she was not at all fit for such long travel. She was unconscious and her blood pressure lower limit had reached 40. She was instantly taken to ventilator. The doctors at mumbai started assessing her condition and gave her emergency treatment and found out that she has a huge blood clot inside abdominal wall around the area where stitches were taken at sterling hospital. They also found that some liquid was leaking out from the stitches. The sterling hospital failed to find out this haematoma and other operation related complications. But more than that, we were shocked to receive the kind of careless and reckless response which we received from sterling hospital management. Rather than taking the responsibility for post operation complications and at the least arrange for a requisite transport arrangement (Which we were ready to pay for), the hospital management abandoned us as soon as the bill amount was received. Mother suffered heavily during the transit, and despite best of the efforts at mumbai hospital, she could not survive. This feedback is intended for sterling hospital management for self introspection, if they have any bit of human values left in them.
Sterling Hospital customer support has been notified about the posted complaint.
Harsh Chandrakant Shah.
Ahmedabad.