She died on a Sunday morning. The people she cared for were by her side but she was not conscious. It was on Saturday evening that her condition had deteriorated. Even nine bottles of blood could not lift her sagging blood count. I had retired to my room when the doctor from the ICU called me up and asked me to come immediately. My wife would have to be put on a ventilator since she was losing time. They asked me to consult Dr.Gangadharan first. I gave the go ahead for them to get the ventilator ready and called him. He quietly said that the ventilator was of no use and it would only prolong the inevitable. An aneasthesiacist came up quietly behind me and said that they had given a small sedation to let her die peacefully. I did not know whether to feel comforted or miserable. She hung on through the night and died quietly at around 11 in the morning.
This was at the Lakeshore hospital. Midhi fought against cancer for exactly a year. I am still not sure why I am writing this column but I somehow feel this disease has opened my eyes to the number of inexcusable attitudes around us.
RCC was a place I thought I never would have to visit. The building is just a small blur whenever one passes Medical College Junction. My first visit was in taking the lab sample from KIMS to RCC to get a confirmation. The staff of RCC is a dedicated lot but if a management expert were to undertake a casual stroll around the administrative building he would find enough recommendations that would fill an entire diary. I am no management expert but I found a number of faults with the system.
A TV kept in a big hall that would run either the news or TV shopping programmes on how to reduce weight. The news was not audible and the videos it carried were of accidents, terrorist acts or acts of violence. It was again a sorry reminder to the world we lived in. On my second visit, I saw this ‘stomach flab’ reducing programme going on. Standing below the elevated TV stand was a man with throat cancer; his wife pouring him tea through his nose which had a funnel fixed with tape. He incidentally had a bit of flab. I did not know whether to get amused or disgusted.
The counters were by the dozen. Cash at the ground floor, token at floor below, testing at a floor above and the files kept at the lobby floor. Finding oneself through this maze would not have been a problem if there were simple directions written on the walls indicating each station. One day I found an old man asking for directions. On enquiring further I found out he was not searching for any particular counter but a way to get out of the building since the exit at RCC is not at the ground floor. It was somehow a manifestation of most people affected with this disease.
The doctors OP would start at 10 or maybe earlier. 12 patients would be called into a narrow alleyway. On an average 5-10 minutes would be required on a patient. The 20th patient in such a scenario would need to stand 120 minutes or about 2 hours. There is no seating arrangement and remember these are cancer patients.
Next was the cost of the chemotherapy medicines. Initially she had to take 4 shots of chemo and then further 6 shots of chemotherapy. A shot of chemo cost about 25000 rupees. It was difficult to imagine that 75ml medicine could cost so much. Agreed, a lot of money went into research but such high costs for medicines that were in great demand all over the world surely meant the medicine companies were making a killing. The only crime I had committed was I had mentioned that I and my wife had a job. She was incidentally a teacher while a person with a better standard of living than me had produced a BPL card and getting his treatment for free. Social equality you see.
Arranging the money was difficult. The medical insurance policy to which my wife had been enlisted in November 2009 claimed that this cancer had started well before November. True she had a cyst prior to that however I had scan reports indicating that all was well. Only after the biopsy of the cyst which was operated in March 2010 did it reveal traces of cancer. Even a doctor’s report proving that there was no issue with her prior to November could assuage the medical insurance company. Even medical experts say that the cancer gene is present in every human body and it is only in certain circumstances that this breaks out into cancer. You can never exactly pinpoint at what point in time you started having cancer. Therefore a person with cancer will never get any coverage from these insurance companies. I did not get a single paisa. Some say; seeing an ombudsman might be of help but I am tired and too cynical now.
She was a good cook and enjoyed only non-vegetarian food. This does not in any way mean that the vegetables that we get in our market which are infested with carbide content are any safe. It is common knowledge that the oranges we get in our market are ripened openly using carbide at Nagpur. There are different types of growth hormones injected to mature a chicken in 30 days. Eating beef is to be avoided is what is mentioned on the RCC notice boards. My brother in law mentioned some hotels in kottarakara selling dog meat instead of mutton. Fish only seems to be the safe bet. A report on a RCC info chart claimed that 80% of cancer diseases were borne out of our food lifestyle. If BT brinjal is bad, this hormone infected chicken is even worse.
Another paper on the RCC notice board says that burning plastic or thermocol is high carcinogenic. The last week I carried my plastic waste in the trunk of my car searching for waste disposal areas near Technopark. It is no secret that these hotel owners come in the middle of the night and dump the food waste on the sides of the highway creating breeding grounds for the most viral diseases. The newspaper carried a report the other day of a Techie who by the way was socially responsible; having not found a waste disposal near his home took it all the way inside techno park so that he could dump it in dustbin there. Blame his luck, for a security saw the bag and informed the bomb squad. The situation might seem funny but it shows a sorry state of affairs and the complete apathy of the state administration in dealing with this issue.
I believe in democracy but the sort of money all governments, whether at the state or at the centre is looting makes me angry. 160000 crores squandered in 2G. I sometime think of the possibilities that this could open up. Proper medical research institutes could develop indigenous medicines for life threatening diseases instead of having to depend on these MNC medical firms who are making a fortune at our expense. Proper incinerating machines or waste disposal mechanisms to check the outbreak of diseases every monsoon. Some in the US say that when a mineral water bottle is purchased they pay an extra amount. This amount would be refunded if you return it to the shop which also gets some sort of government incentive. Governments say no one offer creative solutions. There, I just provided three.
We were married only for two years. The astrologer her parents were seeing said that her disease would be cured and she would get a government job. She died a month later. I am a Gandhian in the sense that I am non-violent but it was good that he was not around on that fateful day.
Her last few months after a relapse occurred were spent in Lakeshore. Dr. Gangadharan was her doctor. I never knew doctors could be so caring and loving. In the last few moments when he said that keeping her on a ventilator would not help her and that I should let go, I was reminded of the fact that this was a private hospital. Keeping her on a ventilator would make the hospital richer by a few lakhs. This is called medical ethics. The last week when a controversy broke out that students had paid upto 50 lakhs to book a seat in a Medical College I sometimes wonder would these future doctors have done the same thing or would they see it as an opportunity to recover their 50 lakhs.
It is true that cancer drains you emotionally, mentally and financially. The one thing I have learnt from my experience is taking each day as it comes. Life has become hard but I strive to move on because Midhi has left behind an angel. She is 1 year old and we call her Ammu.
This was at the Lakeshore hospital. Midhi fought against cancer for exactly a year. I am still not sure why I am writing this column but I somehow feel this disease has opened my eyes to the number of inexcusable attitudes around us.
RCC was a place I thought I never would have to visit. The building is just a small blur whenever one passes Medical College Junction. My first visit was in taking the lab sample from KIMS to RCC to get a confirmation. The staff of RCC is a dedicated lot but if a management expert were to undertake a casual stroll around the administrative building he would find enough recommendations that would fill an entire diary. I am no management expert but I found a number of faults with the system.
A TV kept in a big hall that would run either the news or TV shopping programmes on how to reduce weight. The news was not audible and the videos it carried were of accidents, terrorist acts or acts of violence. It was again a sorry reminder to the world we lived in. On my second visit, I saw this ‘stomach flab’ reducing programme going on. Standing below the elevated TV stand was a man with throat cancer; his wife pouring him tea through his nose which had a funnel fixed with tape. He incidentally had a bit of flab. I did not know whether to get amused or disgusted.
The counters were by the dozen. Cash at the ground floor, token at floor below, testing at a floor above and the files kept at the lobby floor. Finding oneself through this maze would not have been a problem if there were simple directions written on the walls indicating each station. One day I found an old man asking for directions. On enquiring further I found out he was not searching for any particular counter but a way to get out of the building since the exit at RCC is not at the ground floor. It was somehow a manifestation of most people affected with this disease.
The doctors OP would start at 10 or maybe earlier. 12 patients would be called into a narrow alleyway. On an average 5-10 minutes would be required on a patient. The 20th patient in such a scenario would need to stand 120 minutes or about 2 hours. There is no seating arrangement and remember these are cancer patients.
Next was the cost of the chemotherapy medicines. Initially she had to take 4 shots of chemo and then further 6 shots of chemotherapy. A shot of chemo cost about 25000 rupees. It was difficult to imagine that 75ml medicine could cost so much. Agreed, a lot of money went into research but such high costs for medicines that were in great demand all over the world surely meant the medicine companies were making a killing. The only crime I had committed was I had mentioned that I and my wife had a job. She was incidentally a teacher while a person with a better standard of living than me had produced a BPL card and getting his treatment for free. Social equality you see.
Arranging the money was difficult. The medical insurance policy to which my wife had been enlisted in November 2009 claimed that this cancer had started well before November. True she had a cyst prior to that however I had scan reports indicating that all was well. Only after the biopsy of the cyst which was operated in March 2010 did it reveal traces of cancer. Even a doctor’s report proving that there was no issue with her prior to November could assuage the medical insurance company. Even medical experts say that the cancer gene is present in every human body and it is only in certain circumstances that this breaks out into cancer. You can never exactly pinpoint at what point in time you started having cancer. Therefore a person with cancer will never get any coverage from these insurance companies. I did not get a single paisa. Some say; seeing an ombudsman might be of help but I am tired and too cynical now.
She was a good cook and enjoyed only non-vegetarian food. This does not in any way mean that the vegetables that we get in our market which are infested with carbide content are any safe. It is common knowledge that the oranges we get in our market are ripened openly using carbide at Nagpur. There are different types of growth hormones injected to mature a chicken in 30 days. Eating beef is to be avoided is what is mentioned on the RCC notice boards. My brother in law mentioned some hotels in kottarakara selling dog meat instead of mutton. Fish only seems to be the safe bet. A report on a RCC info chart claimed that 80% of cancer diseases were borne out of our food lifestyle. If BT brinjal is bad, this hormone infected chicken is even worse.
Another paper on the RCC notice board says that burning plastic or thermocol is high carcinogenic. The last week I carried my plastic waste in the trunk of my car searching for waste disposal areas near Technopark. It is no secret that these hotel owners come in the middle of the night and dump the food waste on the sides of the highway creating breeding grounds for the most viral diseases. The newspaper carried a report the other day of a Techie who by the way was socially responsible; having not found a waste disposal near his home took it all the way inside techno park so that he could dump it in dustbin there. Blame his luck, for a security saw the bag and informed the bomb squad. The situation might seem funny but it shows a sorry state of affairs and the complete apathy of the state administration in dealing with this issue.
I believe in democracy but the sort of money all governments, whether at the state or at the centre is looting makes me angry. 160000 crores squandered in 2G. I sometime think of the possibilities that this could open up. Proper medical research institutes could develop indigenous medicines for life threatening diseases instead of having to depend on these MNC medical firms who are making a fortune at our expense. Proper incinerating machines or waste disposal mechanisms to check the outbreak of diseases every monsoon. Some in the US say that when a mineral water bottle is purchased they pay an extra amount. This amount would be refunded if you return it to the shop which also gets some sort of government incentive. Governments say no one offer creative solutions. There, I just provided three.
We were married only for two years. The astrologer her parents were seeing said that her disease would be cured and she would get a government job. She died a month later. I am a Gandhian in the sense that I am non-violent but it was good that he was not around on that fateful day.
Her last few months after a relapse occurred were spent in Lakeshore. Dr. Gangadharan was her doctor. I never knew doctors could be so caring and loving. In the last few moments when he said that keeping her on a ventilator would not help her and that I should let go, I was reminded of the fact that this was a private hospital. Keeping her on a ventilator would make the hospital richer by a few lakhs. This is called medical ethics. The last week when a controversy broke out that students had paid upto 50 lakhs to book a seat in a Medical College I sometimes wonder would these future doctors have done the same thing or would they see it as an opportunity to recover their 50 lakhs.
It is true that cancer drains you emotionally, mentally and financially. The one thing I have learnt from my experience is taking each day as it comes. Life has become hard but I strive to move on because Midhi has left behind an angel. She is 1 year old and we call her Ammu.
I lost my mother last year to cancer and came across your blog while looking up Dr Gangadharan. My deepest sympathies lie with you. While nothing can assuage your pain, I hope with the passing of time, the grief diminishes are tne memories grow fonder. Love always. May god bless you and Ammu
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