Around this time last year i wrote a blog titled "From Wuhan to Velachery", this blog is a sequel to it but this time its my mother.
23rd April - My mother is sick with headache, body pain and mild fever, Day-1 she took the usual home remedies for the day but the body pain didn't reduce. On Day-2 my dad took mom to a general physician who on initial diagnosis said the symptoms are not related to covid and gave medication/antibiotics for 3 days. For the next 3 days she took the medicines, the mild fever subsided, her body pain too got reduced, as she showed signs of recovering come Monday morning she became dull again with body pain. Now i decided to go for covid test and informed the chennai corporation authorities who come for a daily home visit to check if every one is fine. I informed the corporation lady staff(jaya) who immediately arranged for swab collection at home. I quarantined my mom to master bedroom and didn't let her to come out for any reason. I was quite surprised, as initially i thought i would need to take her to primary health center to provide swab sample.
Within a hour the swab collection was done at home, this made me realize the stupendous job that chennai corporation is doing for the welfare of the community. We easily blame the government that they are not doing a good job without even experiencing what they are doing for the community. I agree that the government let loose during the election campaign 2021, hoards and hoards of people gathered in huge numbers without mask and social distancing was a joke then. We all knew the second wave is nurturing at those gatherings but less we know that it will hit us hard and right on head with a hammer in a short span of time. North India is worst hit, we see gory news in the news channels, Delhi our capital is lacking oxygen cylinders and people are dying at the hospital entrance due to lack of beds/oxygen cylinders and i see a news where a woman is trying desperately to review her breathless husband by giving CPR. 3.5 lakh cases is the daily count of covid cases in India and chennai is reporting 12k, 13k, 14k numbers gradually, an increment of 2k cases every 2 days and news that hospital beds are getting full.
Though my mom didn't have fever or cough or loss of appetite, her only discomfort is body pain and its totally not reducing at all, come Tuesday i started to call the corporation staff and they said it will take one more day for the result as the number of test samples are huge in number. My mom being quarantined to a room where we give food and other things at the door entrance without even entering the room, while my mom is hoping that she will be out next day and she many not have covid (our minds failing at accept the reality that we may covid is a concern in many families), but i am skeptical and i had a hunch that she has got covid. I had that hunch because my cousin brother who live next door is sick and lost smell sensation, my mom and us we daily visit them as it is just a cross over of a bridge between two buildings.
28th Apr; Come Wednesday noon, i got call from Chennai corporation that my mom is tested positive and i can choose to go the government route; which is, they will arrange ambulance to take her to a testing center and get CT & blood tested or i can choose the private hospital route where i take care of things myself. I decided to go the private way to take CT scan first and then consult with doctor via phone based on the result. By evening i got a doctors contact at global chennai and visited hospital at 9 pm. In the next 2 hours CT scan and blood test was done, along with me & mom, my cousin brother living next door also came for CT scan in separate vehicles. For my cousin lung infection is very mild and can be home quarantined as suggested by doctor. But for my mom its 30 to 40% impact and she requires hospitalization is what the doctor suggested, he also said that 75 beds at the hospital is currently fully occupied and may take another 2 days for a bed to be available, until then the steroid tablets should work but hospitalization is necessary is what the doctor advised. At midnight, i am back at home, gave medicines for my mom and for the next 1 hour till 1 am, i scanned through the government portal which list the vacant beds available across chennai. Contacting each and every hospital that showed beds available, the standard one statement reply i got from all the hospital is, all the beds are full and i need to call back morning around 11 am to check if any beds available. I slept through the night hoping everything would be fine.
29th Apr; Thursday morning i woke up early and my mom is fine, oximeter reading is normal no issues apart from the constant body pain. Many of my family relatives started calling and inquiring about the health condition of my mom and we started looking for vacant beds through our contacts. One such contact informed there is vacancy in MIOT hospital and in parallel i inquired about the government hospital bed vacancy with the corporation staff and i was told beds are available in KMC hospital and if i am fine then ambulance will be arranged. After consulting with my family members we decided to got for MIOT, i took my car wearing double mask and mom at the rear seat, reached MIOT at around 11 am. There is separate block in MIOT for covid patients; one hall for patients and other hall for their attenders. My mom was seated in a chair in the covid hall and i was asked to be in the attenders hall. I don't want to sit in the attenders hall as i know that place is heavily infested with corona virus, i refrained from touching things and add to my fear there is not even a single hand sanitizer bottle at the entrance or inside the attenders hall, such a irresponsible hospital management and throughout the day not even once the area was sanitized.
Its 2 pm, from 11 am onward no medication was given, my mom told she is hungry and when i told the doctors to give food they asked me to get from canteen and then in five minutes i was asked to pay 25k for further tests and when i paid the amount, there comes the food quickly. I was told that CT scan, blood test needs to be done and temporary bed would be given for which i need to pay 25k, i told i have blood reports available which i took just 12 hours before and i got reply that as per their hospital policy they wont accept test results done outside and the consider report only done at their own labs. I paid and asked them to go ahead with the process because i know if i ask logical questions i will get simple reply as mom is in risky condition and its up-to me to take the risk or not. Just imagine, same blood, same type of test which the hospital won't accept and this is case across all the private hospitals. These private hospitals try to capitalize on our fear to their benefit. I literally see that the hospital is sending away patients whose oxygen is 90 or below just by replying they don't have beds, only stable patients are screened further as the hospital know they can earn easy money from them. One patient who sat next to my mom was pretty stout and he looks very stable but the HOD told him test cannot be taken for him, i felt the reason was he might be a complicated case to be screened at hospital and not a easy money earning case. I literally heard the doctor mumbling to the security to pushing him out fast.
From what i see and what i hear is, COVID-19 is a boon to the corporate hospitals where they make hell lot of money, the media has instilled horror stories in our minds that we panic and are afraid to take bold decisions. As a son i want best treatment/medication to be available at any cost and hospitals capitalize on that.
Jan 2020 my father got hospitalized in Ramachandra chennai for a very minor issue, 2 days in ICU and 1 day in normal ward cost me 75000. Many such incidents i faced and many stories from friends, when you get admitted to a hospital they try to earn as much as possible capitalizing on your fear and we all know that hospital are commission based and doctors are given target like sales people. Private hospitals in India are becoming blood sucking parasites, any chance is capitalized upon by the bloody MONEY SUCKERS!!! Sometimes i feel why i didn't study medicine and if you don't have any doctors contact in family or friends then god save you from the parasites. I fear private hospital are becoming the new non-curable parasite, and i hope the government steps in and kills the parasite that is growing in our community. I hope i should never be hospitalized in any situation even while lying on my death bed.
On the contrary, so far the help i got from the government is phenomenal and got to know their care is pretty great at their centers, they pick you from home, cure you and drop you back at home all expenses borne by the government.
At 2 pm, I went to canteen and had food, that is the first time i removed mask and after lunch i sat under a tree opposite to the block refrained from going inside, penning down all these thoughts and happenings. I was told that it would take at least till 8 pm for the results to be obtained then a decision would be taken. At 5 pm, i went to have coffee and while returning back i saw my car tyre got punctured (i was like give me a break), i took the spare tyre and replaced the punctured one sweating out all the way. I hate being at hospitals and always refrain from going to one, this double mask elastic band is pulling my ear down inducing constant pain; my annoy meter is at the max currently(like anger character in inside out movie).
7.21pm; hurray, i was told my mother is in early recovering phase and the medication should cure her, the lady doctor with whom i spoke just now is sweet, she said not to worry and panic, that she is seeing patients who is panicking and staying in hospital and wasting money. I see many patients are going back one by home as advised to be home quarantined, at-least 10 in the past 3 hours; only stable patients are allowed to get down from the vehicle. When you come through reference, they tell beds available, 25k to 30k per person easily around 15 to 20 patients per day, do the math and you know what kind of business is being churned out per day and i was told if admitted it will be 30k per day. Just imagine the situation of people who are in middle class and getting into private hospitals.
We got out at 10 pm and i literally had to scold people to get my mom out soon as from 7.30 every 20 minutes when i asked they just replied another few more minutes, one hand they are taking lot of patients just to screen and earn and on other hand they are under staffed. I have made/receive 120 calls today from 12:00 am to till now, phone is running in ultra power saving mode at 9%, this ultra power saving mode saved my day.
From 11 am till 10 pm there was no medication given to my mom(not even a dolo 650 to reduce body pain), food was not proper and no hot drinks given in the evening. A co-patient near my mom asked for hot water and the nurses said they don't have hot water and they have only bottled water which is always cold inside the aircon room. I would have taken a good care of my mom at home and did a better job than the blood suckers. I spoke with a couple of patients attenders and all of them tell the same thing that they could have given better care at home and government hospitals are doing a great job than the private ones.
Everyone tells that if one person in a family is covid positive then by default the remaining ones in the family would also be positive and the government officials told us we need not worry and not to take test, if we don't have symptoms then it would mean our immune system is doing a good job containing the virus. Hoping to be fit for the rest of the week.
Currently situation in India is all hell broke loose, stay safe guys, stay away from corona and mainly stay away from the Money Suckers (AKA) Monster Suckers. #GoGovernment. I see many people refrain from taking covid test and they assume they wont get corona even if they have any related symptoms, key to get cured from corona is to act fast, right from day 1 of any symptoms. Corona can be defeated only in two ways; herd immunity or vaccination.
Though my father was frightened a bit, i was not, because i know, sometimes bad things may happen but at the end of the day good things happen to good people. Hope the "Wuhan to Velachery"series ends here and no more sequels to write.
