COVID-19: A bystander experience...

 Hi Everyone --

I trust you, family and friends are doing OK.  My prayers are always there for everyone's well-being.

I know, many people shared their covid experiences. 

In this blog, I am going to share my true experience as a bystander for a covid patient (my brother-in-law). Little different from my farming blogs, but I thought it is worth sharing.

During the peak pandemic, my brother-in-law was infected by Covid.  First few days, he was taking normal fever tablets, but it was not working, hence admitted into a private hospital in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu. Everything was going fine for first 2-3 days in hospital, he was given injections and tablets, but slowly oxygen  level started going down. Hence they started giving oxygen for him. Everything was going OK so far, first few days.

On the fourth day morning, while I was in my active meetings with my teams, my sister was trying to reach few times. As I was in meeting, I did not pick up the call. But, this time it was consistent calls and also from two unknown numbers. I was getting calls consistently like never before. Hence, I paused my current meeting and took the call. 

It was a panic call from the hospital where my brother-in-law was admitted. Chief Nurse called and said, my brother-in-law is very serious. You have to take him to different hospital, put him in ventilator asap, since we do not have enough oxygen supply. Also, I called back my sister, she was crying and no-words. OK, I stopped all my work and got into hospital. I also called my another cousin brother, we both went to the hospital. I saw a real world of problems, till then I was reading only in news and papers.

We were briefed about the situation and asked to take the next step immediately.  We started checking with many private hospitals, but no luck with ventilators. Everything was full and everyone was running around for admissions.

My sister-in-law is in USA and she started calling all her doctors friends. Yes, with the international network, we met the chief doctor in another private hospital, with one of our friends reference from USA & UK, but we were asked to wait for admission. We were in wait-list for admissions. First time, we were hearing about wait-list for a patient in a hospital. The chief doctor said, one person may die anytime, and that ventilator is reserved for us. Huh..What?.. We also saw that patient, OMG, tears started rolling in our eyes. We decided not to wait in private hospital, not to wait for a patient to die.... So far, I was only reading in news about oxygen supply issues, deaths etc. I saw that in real at that time. Everyone was asking for oxygen supply.

We were also recommended by many people from our network about the Government Medical College Hospital in our area. OK, our mind sounded: let us try that. We decided to go there and try. First time, in my life i was getting into a Govt medical college hospital.  Wow, it was such a beautiful campus spread across in many acres, such a big trees with birds, but panicking noise, ambulance sound everywhere :(

 

We went there and checked around all the places. Same answer here too. No ventilators, everything is full.

As you can see in below picture, many folks were waiting, ambulances were rushing in and out.

OK, what's next?. Yes, Finally, we got a bed using our different channels. I am not going to share how, because that itself is a big story. You need to know many people in life. Your contacts are important in life. Never under estimate your relatives and friends.

OK, how about the admission. It was not at easy to get an admission. I was given "a small piece of paper" by the junior doctors in the admission, and they asked me to shift my brother-in-law from private hospital. I was so confused, how can I trust this small piece of paper against my BIL life.. But, it worked as promised, when we came for admission while he was very very serious.  I was expecting an admission card or patient card like we get in every private hospitals.

We shifted my brother-in-law from private hospital to government hospital. Ambulance reached critical ICU unit. One person attended the ambulance and got him inside. He also asked one more person to come along with him. I helped him. They asked me to help in pulling the stretcher to the top floor. We reached there.  OMG, such a panic situation inside the ICU and only very few doctors. They were running around, nurses were running around too. That scene/picture is still in my eyes.

I had so many questions: How do you track a patient's health? How do we know what medicines are being given?.  Doctors were writing everything in papers.  Where is technology here?.  Why technology is not being used here?

I know the treatment was best there, no complaints about that. The doctors are best.

My BIL completely recovered after two weeks of intensive medicines and surplus oxygen, came out strong, with the help of best doctors, support people and nurses. We thank all the doctors, nurses and staff from our heart, and we wish them live longer and happier, to help others.

However my questions are:

• Where is technology in Govt hospitals?. Every small private hospital has such a good registration system, patient tracking system, appointment system etc. Why it is not there in medical colleges?
  
• When the pandemic is around, government got in and diverted all the oxygen supplies to government hospitals. What is the role of private hospitals here, as they were trying really really hard and negotiating with oxygen vendors?....
• Why patient history is not tracked either via mobile number or aadhar number in secured way?
• Can we get our OP history easily?. Or, can doctors from other Govt hospitals can see OP history globally for a given patient?
  
• Why we do have lots of manual processes and paper work in Govt hopitals? - When do we get them upgraded to latest technology or softwares?
  
• Best doctors, best infra, but why not best technology or software for doctors and patients?
• When free medicine is respected in other countries, why not in our country?
  

Summary:

• When I was bystander in private hospitals(KIMS, Apollo, or any big hospitals etc), I felt that we have best doctors, best infra and best technology in place. However, when I was bystander in Govt Hospital, I felt that a lot can can be improved in Govt hospitals and helped by IT people in our society.
  
• Medicine is free in other countries. Doctors, Nurses and medicines are well respected there. Why not in our country?. Why everyone is not visiting Govt Hospitals?.
  
• IT (Information Technology and Income Tax) is powerful. Let IT reach the right people at right time.