Sad stories . . .

It has been a very unusual Wednesday so far .. .. .. 3 cases within 6 hours which tells you a whole lot about the condition of healthcare in most parts of our great country . . . 

I had just walked into office when one of the local villagers brought a very sick looking girl into casualty. The 9 year old girl had been sick for the last 15 days with fever. The local village quack was managing her . . . with herbs and roots. 

Yesterday, she became unconscious. And the family did not know what to do till one of the neighbours told them to rush the girl to us. 

She was all yellowed up. And only a sigh of her breathing told us that she was alive. GCS of 3/15. Her serum bilirubin was a whopping 28 mg%. We are still not sure of what we are dealing with. 

So sick and they did not even think it worthwhile to show her to a proper doctor. 

Well, you'll realise what use is it many a time even if you show to a regular doctor. 

Just couple of hours after the above patient came in, a young lady was wheeled into emergency. She was dead. It did not need much of a history for Dr Johnson to make a diagnosis. 

Mother of a little girl who just turned two yesterday, she experienced severe abdominal pain at 3 AM today early morning. She had missed her periods by 2 months. 

She had visited 4 very good doctors over the 6 hour period she had spend in our nearby town. All big, big names in clinical practice. Anafortan . . . fortwin-phenergan . . . these were the drugs she recieved. 

Nobody could think about a ruptured ectopic. We took permission for a undocumented ultrasound and the results were there. It was a ruptured ectopic. 

It was unthinkable .. .. .. A young mother who celebrated her daughter's birthday less than 24 hours back lay dead in front of us. 

The last case was another young lady my colleague saw in outpatient almost the same time. A very obvious case of enteric fever . . . She has received about 20 different types of medicines from 2 quacks and 1 qualified doctor. All of them has nothing to do with enteric fever. 

One cannot blame a patient who goes to a quack if he fails to get a clear communication and evidence based treatment from a doctor who has a recognised medical qualification . . . 

Time we look seriously into medical training in India . . .