It is with mixed feelings of gratitude and shame that I write this article. One gets to experience such instances rarely or is it that only I feel so? The story dates back to around 3 years when I was about to deliver my daughter. Being a resident of Dombivili, I registered myself to one renowned obstetrician named Dr. Krishnakumar. Call it sixth sense or what, right after my first antenatal visit in my second month of pregnancy, I confided to my husband that I feel I would have a normal delivery, but this doctor would advise me caesarean section. True to my gut feelings, in my ninth month, just a week before my due date, he said the baby has not descended or rather the head is not fixed, so you have to elect for a cesarean. I did not want to give in so easily, so I requested him that we will wait a week since I am not due yet. He said no, even if you wait 10 days, you will ultimately have to have a cesarean, so do not waste any more time and select a date.
My husband and me reviewed our possibilities again and again, over and over, but I just could not make my mind up to it. No doctor would accept a case at this late stage, yet my mind refused to accept. No, I was not in a state of denial, rather I was so firm in my instincts and decision that I would have a normal delivery no matter what. My husband was into Nursing at Fortis Hospital, so I asked him if we could get another opinion. We went the very next day to Fortis Hospital in Mulund where after some tests, the kind lady doctor said that it is very much possible for you to have a normal delivery, or at least a trial can be given. This was my first instance of gratitude. I thanked her immensely for restoring my faith and asked if she would do the delivery. She said that delivering at Fortis would not be affordable for you, so you ask your own doctor to give a trial.
The next day I went in for a third opinion, after I got referral from my neighbors, to another doctor in Dombivili. The lady at the receptionist refused to even give me an appointment first looking at my advanced stage. After a 3-hour wait and multiple requests, I finally got to see the doctor. When I apprised him of my case, he too told me that I should ask my doctor to give a trial and that he was an experienced person. But my mind was not letting me go to that doctor because I was sure that even if the doctor listened to my request, he would but eventually perform a cesarean.
After another late night discussion, I convinced my husband that we would go for a fourth opinion at NM Wadia Maternity Hospital in Parel. It takes almost one and a half hours of travel to reach the hospital from my place, but he reluctantly agreed. I met with my parents and took their advice too. They were of the opinion that they would support me no matter what decision I take.
Now, started my roller coaster ride with the hospital. When I went to the OPD, I explained the receptionist that I was here to take an opinion. Yet, I was asked to pay for a battery of tests that were not performed on me saying it was the norm. I told them let the doctor first prescribe and if needed, I would pay, but they were not entertaining any discussion, so I had to pay. After some wait, when they asked me to go to the respective waiting room of the doctor, I saw that there were two doctors' names and I was asked to choose one. When asking their opinion did not provide any worthwhile suggestion, we both prayed and said we would chose a Dr. Trupti Nadkarni. When you go to Wadia you have to be prepared to repeat your history multiple times to all the concerned interns and students before you can finally relate it to your actual doctor. I took everything with a pinch of salt and prepared myself to see the doctor. When the doctor arrived, I had a sudden light of hope inside me and I felt a strange feeling that she is my angel, and angel she was.
Such a sweet, humble, concerned doctor! She patiently listened to all that I had to say without interrupting me and her first words were "What a brave person you are!" Everything she said was restoring my faith that I have come to the right place and all is going to be fine now. God had taken my case in His hands and He was going to fight for me and deliver me. She too did some tests (physical examination) to see if the fetus' head had fixed. She said it is fixed and you will have a normal delivery. She gave me some exercises that will help me further in having a normal delivery. She said we will wait until 2 days post my due for pain to start on its own; else to return for an induction.
I waited for pain to come, but there was none. Finally we went on the stipulated date, had an ultrasound and NST (non-stress test), and went in for admission. God sent another angel to help me through this via a nurse who was a former colleague of my husband. She personally ushered us through all the examinations and formalities and visited us at the end of her shift. That time I was inducted and started getting labour pains at 2:30 a.m. We had chosen Nursing Home ward as that was supposed to be a private ward, meaning better care, but I was surprised at the care I received in that ward. Surprised more so because I was an alumni of that hospital, having studied my midwifery there. Such shoddy, irresponsible nursing care that you would be ashamed to be called a nurse. I got an excellent doctor, but horrible nursing care. There were only 5 patients at that time and one nurse, which was a fairly decent ratio to handle. As a student nurse, in my night shift, I had handled about 81 patients in the ANC ward of the same hospital as my fellow student had to take an urgent leave. When a student can handle that much, how much more responsible should a staff nurse be while handling 5 patients in a private ward?
After a S/P S/E (shave and prepare along with simple enema) order was written, the orders were not carried out and were done only after she was reprimanded by the doctor. When I was about to be transferred to the labor ward, it is a protocol to be transferred in a stretcher, but I was made to walk to the labor ward. The labor ward nurses were another saga to experience. When they asked if I was given an enema and I replied in the negative, they threw up their hands saying it was not their job and the ward nurse is supposed to do that. So the ward nurse was called and enema was given. I must again thank the doctors for their support and regular visits because the nurses never came to my side. I was aware that there used to be 5 to 6 staff nurses per shift apart from 3-4 student nurses and this was the day shift. When you are in that pain, you wriggle about and tend to lose focus about oneself. One tiny sheet (drawsheet) was provided to cover my lower half and in the all the wriggling and tossing in pain the sheet did little to cover me. At one point the sheet fell down the bed and the bed was very high for me to reach down. A couple of nurses passed by the room and I requested them to please give me the sheet and the answer I got was they would send an ayah or ward boy. How much time would they have wasted had they given me the sheet which was anyway their duty. I lay like that exposed for almost half an hour until a ward boy happened to pass by. The kind-hearted soul felt sorry for me and gave me the sheet. He even mumbled some curses for the nurses for being so hard-hearted and left.
When IV was hooked to my hand there was blood all over my hand as a result of a failed attempt. The nurses again did not bother to clean my blood stained hand. After all the pain, I delivered my baby at 2:40 p.m. When I asked to see the baby or what gender it was, they said they would clean up the baby and show me, then I can see for myself what gender the baby was. I asked them if it was a girl because I wanted a baby girl, but they asked me to wait. I felt it strange because back during my student days, the mother was shown the baby even before the umbilical cord was cut. I thought I'd wait because there were procedures performed on me like suturing the episiotomy and all. The doctors did their job and asked the nurses to clean up. I was fitted with a pad but all the other residue including the placenta was just left like that. I was surrounded with all the mess, the blood, the instruments, et all. Another pair of nurses walked into the room after almost half an hour, I asked them about my baby, they said don't you know and just left. Imagine me lying there not knowing, not seeing my baby, what happened to her, nothing. When the doctors came back for a check, I asked them about the baby. They were shocked to know that I have not seen my baby yet and asked they will tell the nurses to show me. I waited and waited for more than 3 hours when my patience ran out. I knew that the baby had to be fed within one hour of delivery. I began shouting and threatening and only then they showed me my baby -- my lovely angelic baby girl. That is another story to tell, the emotions that ran through me when I first saw her and touched her. Till then I had only read, but that moment I actually felt that I had taken a second birth.
I did not even spend 5 mins with her and they were taking her away. When I told them that I need to feed her, they said they will feed her (lactogen) and I can feed her once they transfer me back to the ward.
In the meantime, there was another lady in the same room who had delivered half an hour before me. She had PIH (pregnancy-induced hypertension) and was not even in her senses totally. She had passed stool and the room was stinking. I had to rehearse another round of shouting to call the nurses to get the lady cleaned. Instead of being compassionate to the lady, they began shouting at the lady for being so disgusting. Since I was already in a state of rage towards the pathetic nursing care, I gave a good dose of my mind to the nurses to just do their job and disappear. When it was time for my second perineal cleaning, again no one came. I was soaked in blood. I badly wanted to pass urine and no one could be found. One ayah came and I requested her to take me to the bathroom. She offered me a bedpan and the bedpan lay there for almost an hour before it was removed. During my days, they offered tea and biscuits post delivery so that you get some strength back, but none was offered to me. My husband somehow as a telepathy read my mind and sent me tea and biscuits with one ward boy. It was as if no one cared for a patient there. People were like robots roaming around with no emotions or responsibilities. It was past 5 pm and I was not transferred still.
After another round of screaming and shouting, I was finally transferred to the ward at 6:30 pm, but not without ensuring a hefty tip from my husband. I had to stay 5 days in the hospital, and during those 5 days, the nurses hardly did anything for me or the baby. Even when they bathed her, even the blood stains were not removed properly. They only came, gave orders to my mother who was staying with me, and marched off. They would not even give me medicine. I was just informed "take your medicine after food." Enough, rest had to be done by me. Not that I could not or would not do, but that was not the hospital's policy. The night before I was to be discharged home, my baby after a bout of poo, started crying very badly. I was frightened because her cry did not seem normal to me. Within a minute she was ashen with blue lips. She had even stopped breathing. I was shouting for the nurse to come and she was soundly asleep in her chair. I stormed out of my room and was furious that she could be so oblivious to a baby's painful cry just 5 meters away and was not even responding to my cries and shouts. I was out of my mind and demanded that the doctor from NICU be called now. She came waddling to my room, as if taking a walk, and saw that the fan was on. During her cry the baby had managed to remove the blanket we had swaddled her in. So the nurse was telling that she is feeling cold and scolded me as to why the fan was on. I was simply not in my mind and so scared for my baby that I kept demanding that the doctor be called. Doctor came after 10 mins, when the NICU was hardly 30 secs away from this particular ward. He said that she might have had a colic and not to panic. Till then I did not know what was colic. Thankfully, I had a safe discharge from the hospital and came home.
I am saddened that I have to write this about my fellow nurses, not all, but those few who fail to show compassion or fail to do their duty. If not for the wonderful bunch of doctors who took excellent care of me, the nurses were nothing but nerve wrecking saga. Nursing is a service to mankind, wherein you need to have compassion, care, kindness, and so much more. That is what I had learned as a student nurse. I am not blaming all the nurses because I know what an angel they are, but my experience was such that I have no kind words to tell about them.
Medical profession has become a hardcore business, with little concern towards care. They think of ways to mint money and can go to any extent to fill their pockets.
After another round of screaming and shouting, I was finally transferred to the ward at 6:30 pm, but not without ensuring a hefty tip from my husband. I had to stay 5 days in the hospital, and during those 5 days, the nurses hardly did anything for me or the baby. Even when they bathed her, even the blood stains were not removed properly. They only came, gave orders to my mother who was staying with me, and marched off. They would not even give me medicine. I was just informed "take your medicine after food." Enough, rest had to be done by me. Not that I could not or would not do, but that was not the hospital's policy. The night before I was to be discharged home, my baby after a bout of poo, started crying very badly. I was frightened because her cry did not seem normal to me. Within a minute she was ashen with blue lips. She had even stopped breathing. I was shouting for the nurse to come and she was soundly asleep in her chair. I stormed out of my room and was furious that she could be so oblivious to a baby's painful cry just 5 meters away and was not even responding to my cries and shouts. I was out of my mind and demanded that the doctor from NICU be called now. She came waddling to my room, as if taking a walk, and saw that the fan was on. During her cry the baby had managed to remove the blanket we had swaddled her in. So the nurse was telling that she is feeling cold and scolded me as to why the fan was on. I was simply not in my mind and so scared for my baby that I kept demanding that the doctor be called. Doctor came after 10 mins, when the NICU was hardly 30 secs away from this particular ward. He said that she might have had a colic and not to panic. Till then I did not know what was colic. Thankfully, I had a safe discharge from the hospital and came home.
I am saddened that I have to write this about my fellow nurses, not all, but those few who fail to show compassion or fail to do their duty. If not for the wonderful bunch of doctors who took excellent care of me, the nurses were nothing but nerve wrecking saga. Nursing is a service to mankind, wherein you need to have compassion, care, kindness, and so much more. That is what I had learned as a student nurse. I am not blaming all the nurses because I know what an angel they are, but my experience was such that I have no kind words to tell about them.
Medical profession has become a hardcore business, with little concern towards care. They think of ways to mint money and can go to any extent to fill their pockets.
Hence, I want to ask the doctor whom I had registered with, why was he not ready to wait for the one week that I was still due? Why was he not ready to give the trial of normal labor when 3 other doctors felt that I could be trialed? Why did the nurses show such a lackadaisical attitude to their work? Why were they not considerate of a patient's needs?
Please doctors and nurses, have a heart. I do not deny the extreme conditions that you work in, but the common man considers you only next to God. Admitted you cannot be God, but may I at least urge you to be God-like?
And, ladies, listen to your subconscious mind. It will surely guide you.
Hope time brings in a positive change.
Please doctors and nurses, have a heart. I do not deny the extreme conditions that you work in, but the common man considers you only next to God. Admitted you cannot be God, but may I at least urge you to be God-like?
And, ladies, listen to your subconscious mind. It will surely guide you.
Hope time brings in a positive change.
