The lady, frail and petite, was admitted
amidst a
lot of twists and turns. She was heavily investigated and diagnosed normal a
few months ago. She wasn’t symptom free though. She was having
shortness of breath all the while. The company, her son works with, sent
the patient to our hospital – supposed to be one of the best in the town. So,
there she was getting admitted in the hospital for coronary angiogram followed
by double valve replacement.
The lady belonged to a remote village, and looking at her you would know how
she was not familiar with the urbanity. She was scared to death as she
was wheeled to the ward. She cried out her lungs when the nurse made IV lines,
she tore the hospital suit when she was asked to wear it. She was indescribably paranoid by the
syringes, injections,
pills
and the white dresses. The son requested me to spend some time with her before
the OT. So, I managed to take out time to be with her. She looked horridly paranoid. Her
face was a question mark. She was pale, white and the petite figure diminished
to an immovable body of flesh. However, as we talked she gradually got better. She folded
and lifted her hands and asked for forgiveness for her behavior. A
lumb in my throat restricted my vocal chord. I got emotional.
The next day was the D-day and as the lady was taken to the OT, she looked
apparently composed. I came down to my office to catch up with the backlog. A
while later I was surprised to meet the sister-in-charge in the out patient
dept. She was supposed to be in the OT! She walked up to me and told me
that she came down to get herself the tetanus injection!
The lady got so fearful looking at the equipments around that she bit the
sister! The patient was ridiculed and being laughed at. Later, I went to
see the lady once before leaving for the day. She, with tears in her eyes held
her hands up, gesturing apologies and asking for forgiveness. I returned home
with a
numbed heart.
This is not a singular incident. I completely empathize with the ordeal the
lady went through. As a matter of fact, the hospital care we are rendering
today is something we should not at all be proud of. Everyday we meet various
people coming to the hospital for medical aid. They are sick, distressed,
depressed and fearful. They are worried of the treatment, care, expenses and
hospitality that they would receive. They are not sure if they would get the
proper and desirable treatment, they are not sure if they would be ‘looted’ by
the hospital, they do not know if they would be guided properly and rightly.
The hospitals should not intimidate the patients but aim at
all round congenial care-giving services. In an endeavor to generate
maximum revenues, hospitals should not be cruelly commercial and just an instrument of money making. The
objective should be to render ‘happy and congenial’ health care to the
patients through an organized infrastructure that justifies the returns. .