Patients as a money making tool

It was not less than a challenge to cover my son’s 2 years gap which he lost when he was unable to communicate with us because of profound hearing loss. Hearing is calculated from the last four months in the womb. In that sense, Advitiya’s present hearing will be calculated as of a two year old child though by age he is Four.

With his Auditory verbal therapy (AVT) sessions regularly, and with god’s grace, I am covering his hearing gap.

I am again ‘RE’emebring things that happened so suddenly that without any doubts I had to go with medical fraternity’s flow.

Advitiya was born at Fortis la femme, Greater Kailash, New delhi. In 2014, the hospital didn’t have the basic hearing screening test.

With the prevalent of number of diseases, every parent is concerned about the health of the child. But we were very unlucky in the name of stem cells where hearing loss isn’t even in the process of a breakthrough.

At home, I was going through his stem cell reports where the only word  labelled boldly in red was REACTIVE. It highlighted Rubella IGG and IGM. 
I studied its meaning.
 And when I didn’t get the explanation, I went to see the hospitals pediatrician, Dr. Raghuram Malliah, when Advitiya was 4 months old.

This doctor rubbished it plainly.  I still remember his tone when he told me to go to the gynecologist to discuss the reports. Not once did he check the reports and read it. The way he behaved that day seemed he was not a doctor but a shrewd manager.

I remember one day he wasn’t available in Delhi, his junior came and injected a routine dose to Advitiya and his crying was unstoppable. That doc came again to check him. We thought he might be hungry but his wail didn’t stop for one hour.

My mother doubts if the injection could be the cause of hearing loss.

On landing in Patna, I considered everything as normal.

Further the incorrect reports at a hearing centre in Boring Canal road, Patna (Bihar) delayed our process. These centres are quick to receive the fees of the test without taking any responsibility of factualness. Clinically no report is 100% correct but the reports that the clinician made was as if some amateur is given to conduct an experiment.

After this I hopped on to Homeopathy, a senior ENT doc at SAMA Hospital with specialization in homeop wasted our further time by giving him medicines . Though he did a complete check up of his ears and simultaneously arguing why did I went for C sec, or Why did doctor advised using formula milk after 4 months and advising not to go in for CT scans. He has written a book on ENT still he delayed that my son’s case was sensorineural loss when I checked the index of his book online. He was so confident that the kid is all fine and that you will come again with a box full of sweets.

My brother’s friend’s nanaji(maternal grandfather) is a practicing homeopath. Still he advised me to see a good ENT doctor and not any homeopath as he wasn’t able to find any solution for hearing loss

Remember in my last blog i talked about visiting a doctor in Rajasthan (kota) . He made us sit through a 20 mints session where he made him wear a pair of headphone to make him hear certain high pitch and low pitch sounds. He basically calculated his response from the movement of his eyes or hands. What made me mention him here again is how we blindly trust a person whether a doctor who invokes peoples trust by pasting pictures of sai baba/gods posters on each wall.  There were so many kids from all over India. This guy was against the use of cochlear implants. He even went on to say that we should wait till Advit turns 3 years. It would have been a disaster if we had waited.

I have seen children on hearing aids listening only loud sounds.

I have seen my son getting hyper when we were unable to read him. I have seen children who still at the age of 6 or 10 talking to their parents in sign language and only speaking aaaaaaaaaaa (opening the mouth). It’s disheartening to see them in such conditions or conditions where there is so much of poverty that the family cannot afford such expensive treatment.

The time when we started with his hearing aids I remember he never sat quietly when his ear mould impression was being taken. From Punjab optical house green park, hearing plus, Kalkaji to Widex Gurgaon we went for his ear impressions and to purchase hearing aids. The people here were humble and guided us for trial of hearing aids even to go in for cochlear implants without delays.

I remember the time when we took him to Max hospital , the audiologist did a Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA) test.

 The aim of the test is to investigate the hearing level in children with suspected hearing loss. A mild sedative is given to help the infant in sleeping.

After that sessions with her focused on hand- grip movement to check if the child can hold a light ball, or a pen or any object with his hand.  There are developmental stages which a child needs to go through. Tried with Faber Castle Kindergarten grip crayon at the age when he was not even 18 months old.

Going forward, when we started searching for ENT surgeon, the one we found at Apollo Hospital, sarita vihar didn’t agree with Max reports and told us to go in for a new BERA check from his clinic at Lajpat nagar 3. According to him, the reports at Max were missing either OAE or ASSR. My intuition was pure negative when i met the audiologist there.

A patient had to go with the doctor’s command no matter where he comes from.

A small child is made to wait or sit for numerous similar tests as if the child is an experiment.  Money here becomes irrelevant as if a patient owns a tree full of money back home. 

Everytime Advitiya was given a dose of sedative he vomited. My son underwent 4-5 tests all same.

The one and only doctor who actually recognized the problem and caught hold of it diagnosing Advitiya with checking all the previous reports of pregnancy, birth, blood tests is his current pedatrician Dr. Rai. I am obliged to this wonderful man who operates on kids magically.

As I mentioned in my first blog on my son's cochlear implant that the age of the child is crucial in matters of hearing age. Less the age, fast development of the child normally subtracting rigorous speech therapy classes.

I also have seen how marketing creates a list of doctors or audiologists who are further referred to patients. Luckily in this case I had a good experience in meeting all of them to not to trust them further and to look in for a genuine person.

I had to visit AIIMS, Delhi for one month just to cross check if my child’s case is handled wisely. We had to back off from aiims because of the waiting time for surgery and unavailability of the latest technology.

Can we please have a list of dos and don’ts, list of specialized doctors (statewise) with the cost of the surgery/procedure for all the medical problems in INDIA.

I came to know my gynecologist in Patna missed my TORCH test. The test generally is done in 1^st trimester of pregnancy which majority of doctors don’t consider important.

Second, why aren’t hospitals considering the new born hearing tests mandatory?

Third, why is the cost of cochlear implants and their further maintenance so high? For a lifetime we have to bear its expenses in every 2- 3 years with the cost of 6 lakhs. Such a high import duty. Also, the speech therapy classes are further expensive after the surgery and the processor cost.

Do you know how after 13 lacs for one processor, Apollo hospitals further cost 1. 5 lacs extra to dispatch the hearing machine as if it’s our duty if my child has hearing loss.

Is there any business going on in India or with cochlear team that these tests are not being conducted in India. Do you know the number of cases of hearing children is on rise?

DRDO (The defence research and development organization) was launching the Indian cochlear implants. Why delays in such a crucial medical device?

We as a responsible citizen pay taxes; I want my money to be used for medical healthcare exorbitantly(here).