A mother’s plight to save her unborn child

Attaining motherhood is the biggest joy in the life of a woman. She can go to any extend when it comes to the safety and security of her unborn child. At times pregnant ladies show extra ordinary courage to ensure the safety of kid in their womb. Yesterday one such story in newspaper touched my heart.

9 months pregnant women had to swim for 90 mins in river to reach another village. This lady comes from a very poor family, both her parents are daily laborers, who could hardly meet both ends after day’s long struggle.  Even the husband of this pregnant lady is not in a condition to take care of her. Hence she was staying with her parents, they stay in a village close to the banks of river krishna.

When this lady entered into her 9^th month, she requested her parents to shift her to hospital but parents ignored due to financial crunch. They assured her that when the time will come, they will take her to hospital. “The water level of river will not rise as monsoon this year may not be good”. But destiny has its own say to this prediction.

It rained heavily and the water level rose beyond expectation, as a result of which boatmen declined to ferry people from one side of the river to another. With every passing hour heartbeat of this lady was increasing and she decided to venture into the river, as staying back was risky. She will need medical support any time. When she asked her father to take her across the river, he told her to jump into the river and sail across, out of frustration. He couldn’t do much because the situation was not in his control.

Finally she decided to swim the river, her father and 2 more of her relative ventured into krishna river. They tied few pumpkins as life guard to ensure she floats in river. In this situation also, she swan half the way, post that she couldn’t swim any further. She had even consumed water also as her body was tired. Then one of her relative lifted her and covered the remaining distance.

After 90 mins they reached another village, villagers saw them coming and came to their help. They shouted at girl’s father for making her swim the river in this critical situation. But her father’s reply silenced them all, “what to do, we don’t have hospital in our village”.

Immediately she was taken to hospital when doctors declared both mother and baby are fine. All throughout her pregnancy she just had ragi roti with chutney. Her circumstances were like that. Now she is in hospital, hope she gets good food there.

I am running out of words to express my feeling towards the courageous task undertaken by this lady. It was highly risky as anything could have gone wrong at any point of time. But the courage and determination of the mother to bring here child to this world, kept her moving.  

Common man's plight with Hospitals and Doctors

Medical profession is regarded as one of the most respectable and noble one, because of the complexity involved in it. Patients on death bed have been brought to life by doctors in many cases. Rarest and complex surgeries have been performed on patients to save a life and give way for other doctors to follow it. Doctor’s at times are in situation where they have to act fast to save life and have to work under extreme situation. There are cases where doctors weren't successful in saving despite the best effort put by them. We shouldn't blame doctors in such cases.

But now this noble profession is being used as a means to make money and play with the emotions of people. Few greedy people from the medical fraternity are bringing disgrace to other professionals who are honest to their work. That’s the reason why people are reluctant to approach doctors at the initial stage of disease. The first thing that comes to a person’s mind when they hears the word doctor is the number of tests, they have to undergo even for a small fever. The costs of these tests are exorbitant, that’s the reason why people prefer to buy medicine over the counter that visiting a doctor.

Here I would like to share 2 of my personal experience by 2 different doctors.

Situation 1

A day my wife complained of acute stomach pain and she was immediately taken to one of the most reputed hospitals, doctors identified the problem and gave her some medicines but asked her to undergo an array of test. They told me that she needs to be operated of the situation. I didn't give my approval for it and bought some time from them for a second opinion. Since I come from a family of doctors and nurses, I checked with them and they suggested me to go for a second opinion. I said no for the surgery and got her discharged from hospital.

We then consulted an expert in that field and his revelation shocked us. He told its silly matter no need to worry. When we tried to show him the report of various tests undertaken in the hospital, his reply was “I don’t want to see as they are of no use to me”. When we inquired about surgery his was shocked and praised my effort in not getting it done. Surgeries are required in extreme situations and here surgery was out of question.

I was saved from this situation because of my family and google, otherwise my wife would have been operated for no cause and I would have ended up paying huge amount of money to the hospital.  Greed for money

Situation 2

I was pain in my index finger for over a month with no respite from personal medication consulted an orthopedic surgeon from a reputed hospital. He told  I have swelling in the vein of my index finger and he will put me in medicines for some time. If the situation doesn’t come under control then physiotherapy or small surgery may be required. He prescribed mild medicine to me and was kind enough answer all my queries. When I met him after 45 days, he was happy with my recovery and told I just need to take care of my finger and things will be fine for me. 

When I was about to pay for his consultation, he refused to take it. Despite my best effort, he declined my offer to take his fee. Reason he was happy his patient has recovered and followed his instructions without fail. 

I have recommended this doctor to couple of my friends and all have similar experience from. No greed for money

Hospitals make money from test and medicine, hence they ask patient to undergo numerable test. 30% cases test required remaining 70% test act as a source of income for hospitals and doctors. One doctor doesn't acknowledge the test reports, if it has not been taken from their hospital or pathology lab. What difference does it make?

If a doctor is unable to treat a patient, he/she should be honest about it and refer the patient to another hospital rather than risking the life of patient. When doctor’s fail to do their duty, they shouldn't blame patient relative if they turn violent. That is what has happened in Dr. Kunal Saha’s case, where supreme court has award the claimant a compensation of 11crore INR

If doctor’s do their job with full honestly and dedication, they shouldn't fear anything, if not they have tough time ahead.