Tackling crisis of medical malpractice.
Not Admitting an Error is the best medicine for Indian Doctors.
Admitting fault and saying sorry can be hard for any one, but for an Indian doctor whose medical error has killed a patient it can mean nothing, but for an American doctor a lawsuit that ends his or her career.
My point of writing this letter is to resolve a situation about my Mother’s sad and unfortunate death so that such an episode from incompetent medical misconduct does not occur again and lead to more untimely deaths in future.
I recall that fateful night of July 7th’09, at 2.30 am, when my dearest mother fell ill with no electricity in the entire village and severe rainfall outside. My heart stopped working, I had no where to go, I picked up the phone and called the only doctor available in our village not knowing his past medical record and arranged the hired van driver to pick him up and dropped at my residence to examine my mother.
He came and examined and found her pressure was very low and gave her a dose of 2 injections and said these injections are very costly. This attempt to give injections was seriously impaired by lack of knowledge of absorption and distribution in the body, the side effects and possibility of cross reactions with other medicine she was taking. He never even inquired as to what medication she was taking all this time. After this my mother gained little strength and he said now she is fine no problem. But I kept asking him, can we take her to the hospital outside Divar for better treatment and diagnosis as she never felt sick like this before, he said no need even though the hired van driver was still present at the site and he left the house around 3.30 a .m. My mother was there on the bed in a condition not so good.
Again in the morning around 6.00 am my mother felt the pain of uneasiness and I summoned the doctor again where he gave one more injection and said she will be ok. I remember pleading to him again on our way out asking him shall I take her to the hospital, where again his reply was no need, she will be fine and at around 8.30 am my loving mother breathed her last. This tragedy was hard for us (children) to take.
Due to this unprofessional medical negligence we lost our dearest mother. How can we trust this doctor’s advice who takes somebody’s life in his own hands? My mother had 6 long hours for better treatment before she succumbed to death. Even when I called him when my mother passed away he said I am on my way out to work and till today never even gave a courtesy call or visited us.
It’s a cultural thing in medicine, that initial instinct to pull back and to sever the relationship with the patient or family and calm up a way to mitigate the chances of backfire. But Dr. D’mello till today never even visited us and not even produced death certificate; we had to arrange it from other doctor.
My purpose here is to enlighten my fellow Divarkars, to be vigilant in the near future when such incidents occur, where we call the same quack doctor (Dr. D’mello) not knowing his past history, with no medical background and experience in this field and the number of cases he mishandled in our Divar Island. So, do wakeup, before it’s too late to correct these medical malpractices. Today it was my Mother tomorrow it can be yours…
This doctor only thinks about his personal monetary gains and prescribes his own medicine, from where God only knows its source, nor does he give any prescription to his patients and before examining the patience he will ask how much money they are carrying.
I checked about his history since he made rumours that he was employed by the Salgaorcars hospital. I contacted all the possible departments there, as no body knows him or heard his name. Finally, one person told me he was at the Salgaorcars Surla mines asked me to contact there and the information I got was that 5 years back he was terminated & was employed as a First Aid Assistant at the Mining Site.
Later on we questioned him at his residence about the injections he administered; first thing he said was those injections he gave were costly ones, asked him as to what he diagnosed and the type of injections he gave. He said he diagnosed about gas & heart problem, so how can you guess something and take someone’s life in your own hands. It’s a clear case of misdiagnosing, his personal greed, and medical malpractices lead to my mother's death. This Dr. D’mello is the resident of Divar but never practiced in our village for lack of fear and lack of his knowledge in the medical field. But now he took the opportunity as no Government/health dept. is bothered to despatch one qualified doctor to our village nor do our panchayat take any step forward in this regard. These have been non existence in our village for quite a long time and we are totally handicapped being on an island and at the mercy of this type unprofessional little knowledged practitioners.
Therefore, now it’s high time for the concerned authorities to look into tackling this Medical Malpractice Crisis. Find out whether all the doctors in our state if registered with Goa Medical Council or Indian Medical Association governing body are well experienced & qualified. And not with fake degree stuck on their entrance doors with too little knowledge, like quack doctor.
I would like to extend an invite the concerned parties to contact me to discuss the
issue further so that a resolution will be resolved.
Eldon Carlos,
Behbehani Motors Company
Porsche Volkswagen,
Kuwait. Tel : 00 965 24831929
Tel: 24844000 Ext: 247.
Fax: 00 965 4844000 / 4830639
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