Sunday morning. I was rounding with my residents. We moved as a group to the ICU, stopping at each bed. A middle-aged woman with a heart attack. A boy fighting malaria. A young man battling HIV and TB. We checked their vitals, reviewed test results, and adjusted their treatment. At bed 7, a young woman …
Written by
SP Kalantri
Violence in hospitals
Last week, a previously healthy 50-year-old man died in our hospital following a massive stroke. A CT scan revealed a deep intracerebral hemorrhage. Sudden death evokes a torrent of emotions—shock, denial, frustration, anger, and grief—not necessarily in that order. Shortly after the patient’s death in our ICU, a furious mob of nearly 50 people bypassed …
A tale of two consultations
A couple of days ago, I happened to see my friend’s grandchild. The three-month old baby, the child’s mother noted, had slow wandering eye movements and did not seem to focus well. The child had albinism- a disorder that affects colour of hair, skin and eyes. The mother was getting jittery. Will my son be …
Are India’s best hospitals India’s best?
On 15 November 2009, The Week released its annual list of the country’s best hospitals, categorized by specialties such as cardiology, oncology, orthopaedics, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, and paediatrics. The rankings were based on a 14-city survey conducted by The Week in collaboration with IMRB, a market research agency. The survey included responses from 10 specialists across …
Mammograms – much ado about nothing?
A day before, I wrote that we should not sell mammography as a screening modality in resource limited setting. Today’s Annals of Internal Medicine carries recommendation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on screening for breast cancer in general population. Interestingly, USPSTF in 2002 had advocated for routine screening mammography at age 40; …
Mammography in a rural teaching hospital
A year before, our hospital acquired a mammography unit, aimed at early detection of breast cancer in women. We did so at the behest of Medical Council of India (MCI) – provision of mammography is one of the several prerequisites for granting approval for MD (Radiodiagnosis) post-graduation programme. Eager to win MCI approval, we spent …
Not even ‘till death do we part
Taori sir and bhabhi. Forty years back, an arranged marriage brought you together. Sir, you joined the department of Biochemistry in a medical school that was beginning to take roots in Sevagram. Bhabhi chose to be a homemaker. Your children went to the same medical school where you served as a faculty for three decades …
Medical Representatives and Doctors
Smart ties, black bags and glib tongues. It has been more than four years since Kasturba hospital saw medical representatives on campus. We took this measure to counter the growing perception that interaction between doctors and medical sales representatives was harming our patients’ economic health. Not an easy decision. Some doctors clearly felt uncomfortable. “Medical …
MD Theses sans acknowledgments
The MD theses, finally, are over. Focused research questions, great introductions, meticulous methods, well-laid out results and structured discussions. But what the theses won’t have this year is their most readable section – acknowledgements. The section, guides loved to leaf through in the close confines of their office. The section that boosted their self-esteem. The …
CAT has nine lives
Every few years, our CAT scan machine drops dead- only to purr again. Bought about 10 years back, the machine has scanned about 20,000 heads, chests and bellies. At times, for some inexplicable reasons, the CAT stands still- a CATastrophic event in the hospital. And as engineers-flown from Bangalore- lay their hands on the CAT …