Callousness of the doctor.

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I have already discussed in one of my previous topics about the consequences of negligence in ‘General Examination’ of a patient which made one of my relatives a victim of it. Now I am going to describe what happened to him when he consulted with a reputed gastroenterologist of the city for further management in the next step. As he had complaints of dyspnoea and other features simulating a heart problem, he had been admitted at first into a private hospital meant for cardiological purposes only but later when he was found to be suffering from severe anaemia, he needed to be shifted to another different private hospital. In the new hospital, an endoscopy was performed to detect the cause of bleeding as stool for occult blood test had been found positive as done in the former hospital to find out the cause of such severe anaemia and the source of bleeding was found to be an oozing polyp at the junction of first and second part of the duodenum. It was decided that an endoscopical polypectomy should be done on the next day. As scheduled, endoscopical polypectomy was done on the next day and the patient was quite well after it. When we visited him in the evening, I came to know from his son that a repeat endoscopical examination would be done after 24 hours of endoscopical polypectomy and if everything was found OK, the patient would be discharged after 24 hours of the repeat endoscopy that is a total period of 48 hours of confinement in the hospital is expected but unfortunately what happened was really pathetic. At about 1 PM just before the repeat endoscopy, I was informed by his son over the cell phone that there was fresh oozing from the site of surgical interference and if needed, abdomen might be opened to arrest bleeding. As the son has joined his office after a gap of few days and his office is at a far distant place than my residence, I was asked to rush immediately to the said hospital to give consent to any operative interference which might be essential so that there was no unnecessary delay in taking any operative procedure needed for saving the life of the patient. On reaching the hospital, I immediately rushed to the ward to visit my relative. Unfortunately what I found was horrible. As I approached his bed, I got a foul smell all around. When I reached the bed, I found him in a very critical condition, he was in a semi-unconscious state, his face was puffy and oedematous, his eyelids were swollen. There was profuse melaena for which the bed was dirty and there was a foul smell all around. He was in urgent need of blood transfusion but I found no active initiative on part of the nursing staff to do so nor was even an intravenous fluid transfusion started. I pointed the urgency to the nursing staff but my cries fell on deaf ears of the nursing staff. Finding no other alternative, I rushed to the doctor in charge of my patient. When I entered his chamber, he introduced me with a very young surgeon whom he had arranged for any emergency surgery if needed. He stated that he would again try endoscopically to arrest the bleeding by managing the bleeding points. If it was possible to do so, it would be better; otherwise, the surgeon would have to open the abdomen. I then informed him everything including the extreme critical condition of the patient. I doubt whether the gastroenterologist realized the seriousness condition of the patient but the accompanying surgeon realized the gravity of the situation and immediately rushed to the ward. I also followed his steps along with the gastroenterologist. In the ward, on inspection from a distance he acclaimed that the patient needed immediate transfer to the ‘Critical Care Unit’ as resuscitation was essential before surgery, otherwise, the patient might expire on the operation table. He scolded the nursing staff for not starting any intravenous fluid transfusion so far. He directed the nursing staff for immediate blood requisition for at least 10 pints and in the mean time to start haemoxyl. At about 7 PM after some resuscitation, the surgeon took the risk of opening the abdomen and at about 10 PM, the surgery was over. All the bleeding points were arrested with resection of that portion of the duodenum. After the surgery the patient became comparatively more stable but the risk was still there for the next 72 hours. The patient was gradually improving and after the crisis period of 72 hours, he was allowed to sit up on the bed. The young surgeon thus did a great job and thanks to almighty God that he has ultimately survived and has been discharged from the hospital in today morning. What he needs now is some follow up checking by the surgeon in the ‘Out Patient Department’. Another important thing is the biopsy report of the specimen which was collected on endoscopical polypectomy and sent subsequently to a reputed pathological laboratory of the city. Here also, I am hopeful about the report.