It was a beautiful day back in 2011. D, my ex-roomy & I went to a reputed hospital chain in Whitefield (the hospital name starts with letter "A", who am I kidding? everybody knows) to get Swine Flu(H1N1) shot as a precaution.
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I'm going to rewind this story a month or two prior to the day we got the shot. My dad, who is a doctor himself asked me to take swine flu shot as soon as possible owing to the flu pandemic that was prevailing in Bangalore. He also asked me to take D along with since she is my room mate & a friend. Although D had no interest in getting this shot or for that matter to visit a hospital, I persuaded her to come along.
It was a sunny Saturday noon. We have a ritual of trying out new restaurants during weekends & that day was no different hence we decided to go to "Herbs & Spices" in Whitefield. The restaurant is located in the midst of a lovely garden with ducks & turkeys crossing by every now and then. We had our lunch, nothing great for vegetarians though(Yes, I squeezed in a restaurant review). And then we took a rick(I mean, auto) and got down at the entrance of the hospital. The receptionist told us that the duty doctors are not available since this is their lunch break & they would be back only in the evening. We told her that we need no consultation because we already met the doctor on Friday and she is the one who suggested us to come the next day to get the shot. Convinced with the argument, she called 2 of the hospital attendants & informed them about our requirement.
We were called to a room and the attendants came with 2 disposable syringes in hand with the vaccine filled to the rim & both of us were vaccinated(OR so we thought!!!)
Once done, we were asked to wait in the lobby. All on a sudden we could hear a commotion - surgeons, attendants along with the receptionist & the hospital manager were going around in a frantic mood talking to each other in a hush-hush manner. We both were yakking to each other that probably they administered something wrong to somebody. Yes indeed they did, it was not to somebody but to us. How tragic!
The chief doctor called us in & informed us of the goof-up that was made by the attendants. D's world crumbled & she could not stand, started crying, asked for water & it was chaotic. The doctor informed us that the serum that was injected into our bodies couple of minutes ago was "Bovine Serum" or in layman's term "Cattle Serum" and not a swine flu vaccine. This serum is used in pathological testing for examining blood quality. The attendant took the wrong bottle from the cooling station because both the bottles were placed adjacent to each other(How convenient!). He informed us that, this serum was never meant for human beings so this was never tested on human body at all, although it is not a fatal serum per se. D could not speak a word after hearing this, she started srying. I, on the other hand got pissed of not just because they administered a wrong drug, but also because the doctor was explaining stuff as if he is having a casual chat with us, he was so laid back, cool , composed & was even lethargic. And that is the trigger for me, I asked him what is that he can do now? He said, the inventor(or creator) of this serum is a HOD & a chief in Christian Medical College. He then called the professor & inquired about the serum. The professor said the same thing that we already knew, that it was never tested on human. Also he said that he cannot inform us of the content of the serum because it is a patented finding. Great!!
By now my mom who is also a doctor, called to check on me to see if we are done with the shot. I explained her the goof-up, my father joined the conversation too. Both were completely devastated(understandably so), they frantically started calling their doctor friends in search of what to do next since cattle serum is something only the pathologists use & not the doctors. So doctors have no clue of the content. Also my father was so guilty because he is the one who asked me to take D along with.
Hmm..it was getting dark outside. By now the professor(also the inventor) got too many calls from my dad/mom & their doctor friends and few more from the hospital management & he finally gave in the details about the content of the serum. Kind enough, he also did some research and gave a conclusion that the serum is not fatal and it does not have any peculiar content to worry about. He said, if there is a reaction to this serum, we might feel itchy immediately after taking the shot but already 4 hours had passed & we did not have any itchy feel per se, so we were good. Also the professor asked us to drink hell lot of water & pee the serum out(I'm sorry, I cannot explain this any other way ;-) bear with me!!).
The supposedly fatal part of this story is over. But I had some unfinished business, I sometimes turn into Rani Lakshmibai's avatar intentionally & so I wanted to go one step further. I demanded the hospital manager to acknowledge the goof-up and the negligence of the hospital staff in writing with the following details like date, serum name, doctor/attendant names, purpose of our visit et al in a hospital pad with seal. Well, the management of course did not expect this from 2 random girls with no family member near by to help with the situation. They kept evading this process for sometime. I did not give up. So I was called in to discuss the pros and cons. And they asked me the reason as to why I need the write-up. They were worried about the possibility that one of us could go to media or something to thrash the hospital's reputation, of which, we had no intentions to - but we wanted to make sure they never repeat this again and also to teach a lesson or two to the lethargic staffs.
It was around 8:30 in the night, after talking to the head office, chief & few more, the Manager agreed to give me something in writing. She came up with some silly write-up with no date, no doctor name, not even a hospital stamp. I told her, I'm not going to get out of this hospital until and unless she gives me what I want in writing. Well, here again she went back to her room, an animated discussion was going on for another 30 minutes & finally she came up with the writing as asked & guess what? I still have it with me. Finally, I toned down from Rani Lakshmibai avatar to Pavithra again and thanked her for the write-up and I assured her that I have no intentions of going to media, I also thanked the chief doctor for telling the truth as it is and for being ethical. It is a medical ethic to tell the patient the truth even if something goes wrong from the hospital or doctor's end & that is exactly what the chief doctor did. If he would have taken the easier route then we might have never known about the goof up. After such an eventful day, D & I retired back to our apartment.
So here is my 2 cents worth to the readers:
1) Visit a hospital during morning or evening timings, not in the mid day when there are very few doctors to assist.
2) Being proactive is one thing but being well-informed is another, had I asked the attendant to show me the vaccine bottle once before injecting, I would have avoided this unnecessary incident scaring the sh*t out of my family & D's. So do not trust any hospital staff as is. Use your common sense. Doctors & Staffs are human too, they make mistakes just like us. To err, is human you see.
3) When you are in a situation do not freak out, take couple of minutes calm yourself down and think about what to do next. Do not fret or cry!!
4) Stand up for your rights.
5) And please get your swine flu shot. Why would you want to die because of "pig" fever? There are better diseases to die for!! ;-)
Image courtesy: Somewhere from Internet
I'm going to rewind this story a month or two prior to the day we got the shot. My dad, who is a doctor himself asked me to take swine flu shot as soon as possible owing to the flu pandemic that was prevailing in Bangalore. He also asked me to take D along with since she is my room mate & a friend. Although D had no interest in getting this shot or for that matter to visit a hospital, I persuaded her to come along.
It was a sunny Saturday noon. We have a ritual of trying out new restaurants during weekends & that day was no different hence we decided to go to "Herbs & Spices" in Whitefield. The restaurant is located in the midst of a lovely garden with ducks & turkeys crossing by every now and then. We had our lunch, nothing great for vegetarians though(Yes, I squeezed in a restaurant review). And then we took a rick(I mean, auto) and got down at the entrance of the hospital. The receptionist told us that the duty doctors are not available since this is their lunch break & they would be back only in the evening. We told her that we need no consultation because we already met the doctor on Friday and she is the one who suggested us to come the next day to get the shot. Convinced with the argument, she called 2 of the hospital attendants & informed them about our requirement.
We were called to a room and the attendants came with 2 disposable syringes in hand with the vaccine filled to the rim & both of us were vaccinated(OR so we thought!!!)
Once done, we were asked to wait in the lobby. All on a sudden we could hear a commotion - surgeons, attendants along with the receptionist & the hospital manager were going around in a frantic mood talking to each other in a hush-hush manner. We both were yakking to each other that probably they administered something wrong to somebody. Yes indeed they did, it was not to somebody but to us. How tragic!
The chief doctor called us in & informed us of the goof-up that was made by the attendants. D's world crumbled & she could not stand, started crying, asked for water & it was chaotic. The doctor informed us that the serum that was injected into our bodies couple of minutes ago was "Bovine Serum" or in layman's term "Cattle Serum" and not a swine flu vaccine. This serum is used in pathological testing for examining blood quality. The attendant took the wrong bottle from the cooling station because both the bottles were placed adjacent to each other(How convenient!). He informed us that, this serum was never meant for human beings so this was never tested on human body at all, although it is not a fatal serum per se. D could not speak a word after hearing this, she started srying. I, on the other hand got pissed of not just because they administered a wrong drug, but also because the doctor was explaining stuff as if he is having a casual chat with us, he was so laid back, cool , composed & was even lethargic. And that is the trigger for me, I asked him what is that he can do now? He said, the inventor(or creator) of this serum is a HOD & a chief in Christian Medical College. He then called the professor & inquired about the serum. The professor said the same thing that we already knew, that it was never tested on human. Also he said that he cannot inform us of the content of the serum because it is a patented finding. Great!!
By now my mom who is also a doctor, called to check on me to see if we are done with the shot. I explained her the goof-up, my father joined the conversation too. Both were completely devastated(understandably so), they frantically started calling their doctor friends in search of what to do next since cattle serum is something only the pathologists use & not the doctors. So doctors have no clue of the content. Also my father was so guilty because he is the one who asked me to take D along with.
Hmm..it was getting dark outside. By now the professor(also the inventor) got too many calls from my dad/mom & their doctor friends and few more from the hospital management & he finally gave in the details about the content of the serum. Kind enough, he also did some research and gave a conclusion that the serum is not fatal and it does not have any peculiar content to worry about. He said, if there is a reaction to this serum, we might feel itchy immediately after taking the shot but already 4 hours had passed & we did not have any itchy feel per se, so we were good. Also the professor asked us to drink hell lot of water & pee the serum out(I'm sorry, I cannot explain this any other way ;-) bear with me!!).
The supposedly fatal part of this story is over. But I had some unfinished business, I sometimes turn into Rani Lakshmibai's avatar intentionally & so I wanted to go one step further. I demanded the hospital manager to acknowledge the goof-up and the negligence of the hospital staff in writing with the following details like date, serum name, doctor/attendant names, purpose of our visit et al in a hospital pad with seal. Well, the management of course did not expect this from 2 random girls with no family member near by to help with the situation. They kept evading this process for sometime. I did not give up. So I was called in to discuss the pros and cons. And they asked me the reason as to why I need the write-up. They were worried about the possibility that one of us could go to media or something to thrash the hospital's reputation, of which, we had no intentions to - but we wanted to make sure they never repeat this again and also to teach a lesson or two to the lethargic staffs.
It was around 8:30 in the night, after talking to the head office, chief & few more, the Manager agreed to give me something in writing. She came up with some silly write-up with no date, no doctor name, not even a hospital stamp. I told her, I'm not going to get out of this hospital until and unless she gives me what I want in writing. Well, here again she went back to her room, an animated discussion was going on for another 30 minutes & finally she came up with the writing as asked & guess what? I still have it with me. Finally, I toned down from Rani Lakshmibai avatar to Pavithra again and thanked her for the write-up and I assured her that I have no intentions of going to media, I also thanked the chief doctor for telling the truth as it is and for being ethical. It is a medical ethic to tell the patient the truth even if something goes wrong from the hospital or doctor's end & that is exactly what the chief doctor did. If he would have taken the easier route then we might have never known about the goof up. After such an eventful day, D & I retired back to our apartment.
So here is my 2 cents worth to the readers:
1) Visit a hospital during morning or evening timings, not in the mid day when there are very few doctors to assist.
2) Being proactive is one thing but being well-informed is another, had I asked the attendant to show me the vaccine bottle once before injecting, I would have avoided this unnecessary incident scaring the sh*t out of my family & D's. So do not trust any hospital staff as is. Use your common sense. Doctors & Staffs are human too, they make mistakes just like us. To err, is human you see.
3) When you are in a situation do not freak out, take couple of minutes calm yourself down and think about what to do next. Do not fret or cry!!
4) Stand up for your rights.
5) And please get your swine flu shot. Why would you want to die because of "pig" fever? There are better diseases to die for!! ;-)
Image courtesy: Somewhere from Internet
So well written.... though it was a serious incident but your writing style has made me smile, while reading it. We know that such lapses do happen even in reputed hospitals in India...... God may help us all not to fall victim of such goof-ups....
ReplyDeleteIt is an informative and educative piece...... hilarious too :) :)
Ahh, Thanks Sanjay for patiently reading the entire article.
DeleteYes, such lapses are still prevalent in hospitals across India. So some of us should scare the sh*t out of them, now & then by taking stand :)
I'm glad you enjoyed the article!!
Your words are always encouraging & pushes me to write better!! Thanks a lot.
Wow that was a well written post, kept me reading all thru... And if I were u I would not have had that strength to fight against the goof up done... U r so smart and liked your move!!.. Doctors make this mess more often and it is a good post to create awareness :) Kudos for the patience in writing such a flawless post... Hope ur friend Deepti doesn't read this...lol ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lovely feedback, Divya! Means a lot to me! And yes, my friend D does not know of this blog yet, in fact none of my friends know that i'm scribbling something in the blog world. I actually wanted to see how much my writing is worth without friends helping me with the traffic. Yes, this is a beta version still :-) I'm learning every passing day!!
DeleteGosh Pavithra.. I am soo shocked reading this article.. But at the same time.. Kudos to you gurl for taking a stand and refusing to leave without a written note.. It takes a lot of courage to do that.. Bravo!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Nilu!
DeleteThanks for patiently reading the entire write up! Really appreciate it!
Sometimes we gotta take a stand, at least when put in a situation, I think that is what I did!! :-)