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Tower A, Unitech Business Park, Block – F, South City 1, Sector – 41, Gurgaon, Haryana, India – 122001
Dear Maam/ Sir,
This is about the modern, state of the art Fortis hospital of Gurgaon. 22 nd April is an unforgettable day in our lives. What was supposed to be a visit to a hospital for a CtScan and some other tests turned out to be a complete nightmare for us.
COMPLAINT AND INCIDENT NO. 1
My husband and I reached the swanky seven star like Fortis hospital, Gurgaon at eight in the morning on the mentioned day for a few tests prescribed by the doctor for a suspected infection of the larynx. For those who may not be aware, larynx is our voice box.
Fasting is necessary for the CECT examination since it involves injection of a dye into the body. Due to some delays at the billing counter, and more, our 9 O cock appointment got delayed by more than an hour and a half. Both o[censored]s waited patiently outside the radiology rooms, chatting and laughing. We discussed everything from the fancy hospital interiors to the interesting wall mounts to the young nurse who seemed too young and uninterested to be there!
My husband’s name was called out, an attendant walked over to us, asked a few standard questions about previous experience, if any, of CT and took his signatures on a form. He was asked to change into their overalls and get the cannula fitted for dye injection. As fate would have it, the same young nurse was assigned to fit the cannula on my husband’s wrist. And then began our nightmare no. 1!! And this is just the first one… I was watching through the small peep glass in the door to see what she was doing- I usually would not have bothered,
but, since I was so jobless I just got up to look… and thank my stars that I did!! I saw the nurse clean the back of his wrist, and begin to insert the needle… then she took it out and inserted again… she again pulled it out and reinserted it-this happened four times. As she continued, I could see my husband’s expressions change from calm to discomfort to pain. The cannula still not in position, she injected the flush liquid, or whatever it was, into the needle. Immediately there was a swelling in the area and I saw my husband speak and gesture to the
nurse as if to say he was feeling very dizzy and uncomfortable.
Not being able to keep my patience anymore, I went into the room at this point and asked him if he was fine. He made the same gestures to tell me he was feeling very sick and before I could even comprehend, I saw him fall to one side on the bed. He had blacked out!! To my horror, the lady, completely oblivious to what had happened, continued to fiddle around with the needle!! I gathered my voice to inform her – I said- He has fainted- she gave a blank look. Assuming language was a problem I repeated in Hindi. To my complete dismay, I realised she was absolutely incapable o[censored]nderstanding what was happening. I rushed out into the corridor and called out to a senior looking doctor for help. He mobilized others and rushed to help. They immediately wheeled out the
bed and through a series of corridors, we reached (what I came to know later was) EMERGENCY. I just ran behind them, knowing not what to do. Guess I have never felt so helpless in my life! A group of white clad people surrounded him – doing a lot of things- pulling out an ECG, measuring his sugar levels and blood pressure, fitting in a drip etc. They finally got him back to his senses!! A bundle of nerves by now, I tried telling them about the whole build up to the climax, but, none would really hear it. They kept explaining how people cannot see blood, how they get frightened by needles and how his blood sugar levels were too low (67 was the count- but he was absolutely normal before the cannula insertion) I only realised much later that they had swiftly removed and replaced the cannula, now on his hand. It was only much later that it dawned on me how the hospital goofed up, made us go through hell and then made us pay for that as well-Goes without saying I paid for the emergency services rendered! What a fool I made of myself!! But I guess when your near and dear one is half dead/ alive
and in their hands, money is of course the last thing on your mind- leave alone getting into any ‘gyan vardhan’ sessions and arguments about incapable nurses and staff! And believe me, this was just a curtain raiser!! With Gurgaon having become the hub for global medical tourism, is this really what one expects from such a Hospital…
I want the hospital to apologise to us in written and not only accept their incompetence and error, but, also own up to the covering up act whereby they declared the reason for fainting as low sugars/ fear of needles/ fear of blood (and all such nonsense) and did not accept cannula insertion as a cause. For the trauma caused and the apathy of charging me in emergency for a mistake committed by them, I want them to compensate me with a sum of no less than Rs. 2.5 lacs apart from the above.
COMPLAINT AND INCIDENT NO. 2
After the above was over, the CECT was conducted, with me reiterating to the technician involved that it was for suspected infection of the larynx and that this was the patient who was actually rescheduled due to fainting- just so that there was no goo[censored]p with the sequencing and purpose.
Then we had our food and returned home to wait for reports. All reports received for Chest X ray, Chest CECT, RFT, TSH, Sputum test, Sputum culture were normal and within acceptable limits.However, the CECT neck report was a huge shock!! The report is enclosed for your kind viewing. The report gave measurements of a lesion- growth in the larynx and a compromised airway and use of such words like neoplastic a strong indication of malignancy. A young, reasonably health conscious, well to do family with two small children, the report sent absolute shock waves through us and our families.That evening and night followed the morning of next day have been undoubtedly the most traumatic time ever in our lives. Death stared us in the face, we felt!
We went to another hospital the next day. For a man who showed no clinical symptoms suggestive of such extent, we were suggested a MRI by a senior doctor at Medanta hospital the next day.
The MRI report received the next morning was a huge and pleasant surprise- there was absolutely no lesion in the larynx or any compromise of the airway!! This was in complete sync with the clinical test through flexible laryngoscopy conducted by the doctors.
I went back to Fortis to meet the radiologist who had written the report, a lady by the name of Ms. Aparajita Mehta. She had no explanation for the same. She admitted casually that the patient might have swallowed during the CECT and this may have caused the mal reporting!! But I want to ask Fortis- who is supposed to have told him that- was it not the requirement of the test that the patient be given due instructions before carrying out the test? And if such a little act of swallowing can bring such extreme impact into the results, then should the hospital not recall the patient and redo the test? Such apathy from the radiologist is unacceptable!!
I demand compensation of Rs. 20 lacs for the extreme trauma caused [ plus expenses of the loss of working days of the family concerned, repeat hospital and doctor visits, MRI, Air tickets and travel of family and relatives to give us support in theses trying times} and an unconditional apology from the hospital along with refund of all fees charged.
I look forward to very hasty action on this and a fruitful solution to the issue.
Thank you
Regards
Shalini Bansal
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[protected]@gmail.com
